By the Closer Look Inspectors team · Facts checked October 2026 against the sources listed below · About our inspectors
A commercial property inspection helps a Cokato buyer, owner or lender learn how a railroad-era downtown building or a reused plant has aged. The city's history page says settlers began arriving after the 1869 rail station and businesses sprang up to serve them, and a former canning plant now operates under a seed company.
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Commercial buildings in and around Cokato
Broadway Avenue: a downtown that grew up after the railroad
Cokato's own history page says settlers began arriving after the rail station was built in 1869, and that businesses sprung up virtually overnight to serve them, including hotels, general stores, saloons, blacksmith shops and a post office. The village was officially founded by a vote of its residents on March 9, 1878.
The Cokato Museum's archive records how some downtown buildings changed use. A 1998 article says the building that housed the Cokato Bakery & Lunch Room, at Broadway Avenue and Second Street, was the home of the State Bank of Cokato from 1894 to 1899. The article called it one of the oldest downtown structures and said it stood ready for the wrecking ball.
A Historical Society piece on the 1920s and 1930s recalls a two-story brick hardware building on a Broadway corner, with apartments upstairs over the store.
Upper-floor apartments, a bank that became a bakery and remodeling over the years are typical of older main-street buildings. They tend to hide wiring added in layers, roofs patched in sections and moisture paths that only show up after a change of use. A commercial property inspection is a documented look at a building's present condition, so a buyer or lender can plan repairs instead of discovering them later.
Canning plants and a seed company
The city's history says the Cokato Canning Company started in 1904 and was the second canning factory in Minnesota. Another factory, Northland Canning, was established in 1924, which gave Cokato the unusual distinction of having two canning plants. Green Giant closed its Cokato plant in 1978, and the Northland plant closed in 2019. The city says that building is now operating under Western Integrated Seeds.
Former food-processing plants are built for different loads than the seed, storage or office uses that often follow them. They tend to have large roof areas, floor drains, heavy slabs and electrical service sized for the old process. When a new tenant arrives, those original systems are asked to do a different job, and that is when a buyer or lender most wants a clear picture of roof, structure and electrical condition.
A wood-frame studio on Broadway
The August Akerlund Photographic Studio at 390 Broadway Avenue has an entry in the National Park Service's National Register database, which gives 1903 as its significant year. The nomination form describes a simple, single-storey wood frame building that combines the photography studio and the owner's residence, with a posing room that has a skylight of translucent glass on the north wall and a pressed-metal ceiling.
Skylights and wood framing are places where moisture tends to find a way into older buildings, and a business that shares a roof with a residence puts two sets of systems under one roof.
Commercial buildings we inspect
Quick answers
Why do older Broadway Avenue buildings in Cokato need a close look before a sale?
Cokato's history page says settlers began arriving after the 1869 rail station and businesses sprang up to serve them, and museum records show buildings changing uses over time, such as a bank building that later became a bakery. Buildings remodeled for several uses often carry layered wiring, patched roofs and hidden moisture. A commercial inspection documents their present condition so a buyer can plan around it.
What should a buyer know about a former food-processing plant?
The city's history says the Northland canning plant closed in 2019 and the building now operates under Western Integrated Seeds. Reused industrial buildings often keep their original roofs, slabs, drains and electrical service even when the tenant changes, so a condition assessment helps separate cosmetic updates from long-term needs.
Can thermal imaging help on an older flat roof?
Yes. A thermal camera records heat the way an ordinary camera records light. Wet insulation under a flat or low-slope roof holds heat differently from dry insulation, so a thermal survey can reveal moisture patterns that a visual walk-through cannot. Older roofs patched in sections are a common place for those patterns.
Sources
- City of Cokato: Community History
- Cokato Museum: Lost Cokato, Cokato Bakery & Lunch Room
- Cokato Museum: Rambling Down Broadway 1920s & 30s
- National Park Service NPGallery: Akerlund, August, Photographic Studio
- National Park Service: Gust Akerlund's Photographic Studio, National Register nomination form
Nearby towns
Commercial property inspection in Minnesota and Iowa · Home inspection in Cokato
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