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Ben Pieser and daughter Betsy Pieser welcome guests into the lobby of Richardson Place during a recent open house.
NEW ULM — Historic downtown New Ulm has been undergoing a rejuvenation with several historic buildings being remodeled or repurposed.
The latest building to get an update is 108 N. Minnesota Street, now known as Richardson Place.
The building has gone by other names over the years. It began life as the Erd building. During the Battle of New Ulm in 1862, the building served as a refuge for women and children during the conflict. The basement of the building was loaded with gunpowder. In event of the town was captured, the women were told blow up the building and everyone inside. Fortunately, the need to light the gunpowder never came.
Others remember it as Eibners. Named after Willibald Eibner who bought the building in 1883 and turned into to a restaurant, complete with bakery and candy factory. A downtown fire in 1936 forced Eibner to rebuild its front exterior in the modern style. The building has since been home to a variety of businesses. A few years ago, it was home to accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), but in late 2022 it became Richardson Place.
Richardson Place offers professional office space for rent including board rooms, training rooms and meeting locations.
The building is owned by Ben Pieser, previous owner of New Ulm Furniture. After retiring from the furniture business Pieser and his daughter Betsy began looking for new office space to rent. The two both wanted space outside of the home.
The Erd building was available following CLA moving to Center Street. The entire building had approximately 12,000 square feet of space. Pieser realized he did not need the entire building, only a small office. He realized there were likely others in the community who could use a little office of their own.
The interior of the building underwent few changes. Betsy Pieser explained CLA had already sectioned off parts of the building for individual accountants. These offices made into individual suits for the different businesses.
Richardson Place got its name from a play on words. Ben Pieser’s father was named Richard. Since Ben is Richard’s son, it became Richardson Place.
“We wanted it to be a nod to him with the first name and we chose “place” since it’s a gathering place of sorts, for various businesses and organization,” Betsy Pieser said.
Richardson Place began renting offices last December. Today, there are ten businesses and organizations working out of the building including; Insurance Leaders Agency, Brown County Yellow Ribbon, United Way of Brown County, Acquired Mental Health, New Om Shop, Principle Skills Relationship Center, Momentum Technology, Hidden Step Marketing and Genevive Group.
Genevive Group and Hidden Step Marketing share one of the larger office suites. This is because the owners of the two businesses are husband and wife, Mike and Sarah Kunard.
Sarah previously ran Genevive out of a home office starting in 2019. Her business is about helping give brands new channels, customers and exposure. After years of working out of home, Sarah wanted to move the business into a professional setting.
“It is a huge win to to have sample products outside of the box,” Sarah Kunard said.
Mike shared his wife’s dream of moving out of the home office. The two decided to rent a larger suites at Richardson Place and share it. Having a space outside the home has helped.
“It is nice to have a door that closes,” Mike said. “It is also great to have a place to meet clients.”
The building also feature shared community space. There are conference rooms and kitchenettes for public use. There are even reminders of the buildings past on display. The walls have sketches of the building as it looked during different eras.
Some of the office space is available to rent short term. Ben Pieser said they have space that can be rented hourly, monthly or yearly.
There are some people who prefer working from home, but might need an office for a day to conduct a client meeting or a zoom call.
There is also a social aspect to it. Jessica Wesslemann works remotely out Richardson Place for Momentum Technology. She was happy to have the office space because she saw people in person.
“You get to meet people,” Wesslemann said. ” I like running into people in the kitchen.”
Ben Pieser said he believes people want to work together. They want to be in the community. Richardson Place offers a community for workers. It also brings keeps a historic building in operation and brings people to New Ulm’s a downtown.
“It is a win-win for New Ulm,” he said.
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