By the Closer Look Inspectors team · Facts checked October 2026 against the sources listed below · About our inspectors
A commercial property inspection helps a Shakopee buyer, owner or lender learn how a river city's late-1800s buildings and its large shopping and employer buildings have held up. The Minnesota River crested at a record 721.8 feet in 1965, and a 1957 downtown fire took six fire departments three hours to put out.
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Commercial buildings in and around Shakopee
Buildings from the 1880s and 1890s
The Shakopee Heritage Society's historic sites list gives the Heidenreich/Schlink Building on Holmes Street South the year 1880, the Rock Spring Cafe on Lewis Street South 1890 and the Argus Block on Lewis Street South 1895. The Shakopee Depot on Second Avenue West is listed at 1910.
The first city hall, a two-story building built in 1883, stood at the northeast corner of Lewis and Second streets until the city decided in September 1957 to abandon and raze it.
The Scott County Historical Society cites the Ketterer building fire in downtown Shakopee on September 7, 1957, which took three hours and six fire departments to extinguish. The same post mentions other business fires, most notably of the St Paul House.
In buildings of this era, floors and roofs are typically wood framing carried on masonry walls, often shared with a neighbor. A fire history, a patched wall or an altered storefront is part of what a buyer inherits with the building.
A river city's flood record
The Scott County Historical Society says the great flood of April 1965 saw the Minnesota River crest at a record height of 721.8 feet, and it cut off access to Highway 169 North for 15 days. In March 2011, MPR News reported National Weather Service forecasts giving Shakopee a 40 percent chance of breaking its 722-foot flood record.
The same report quoted Scott County's emergency management director on the one bridge that usually stays open: losing it would leave basically one way in and out of the county to the north, Highway 169. For a commercial property, flood questions can be about access and deliveries as well as water in the building. Inside, the questions are about what sits low: electrical panels, mechanical rooms, floor drains and stored goods on ground floors and in basements.
Shopping centers, big employers and Canterbury Commons
Discover Shakopee, the chamber and visitors bureau site, describes Southbridge Crossing as a 500,000-square-foot, open-air regional shopping center on the south side of Highway 169 at County Road 18. It names Canterbury Park, Valleyfair, Seagate Technology and St. Francis Regional Medical Center among major employers, and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, through Mystic Lake Casino Hotel and Little Six Casino, as the largest employer in Scott County. It also points to Canterbury Commons as an emerging live-work-play community.
Big shopping centers have acres of low-slope roof and rows of rooftop units, and hospital and technology buildings have specialized electrical and cooling systems. On a big flat roof, a thermal camera used at the right time of day can show damp insulation as a warmer or cooler patch, and the same camera shows a warm breaker in an electrical panel.
Commercial buildings we inspect
Quick answers
What eras do Shakopee's older buildings come from?
The Shakopee Heritage Society's historic sites list gives the Heidenreich/Schlink Building (1880), the Rock Spring Cafe (1890) and the Argus Block (1895), and the first city hall was built in 1883. The Scott County Historical Society cites a 1957 downtown fire that took six fire departments to put out.
How high has the Minnesota River gotten in Shakopee?
The Scott County Historical Society says the Minnesota River crested at a record height of 721.8 feet in April 1965, which cut off Highway 169 North for 15 days. In March 2011 MPR News reported that National Weather Service forecasts gave Shakopee a 40 percent chance of breaking its 722-foot record.
Does flood risk affect access to commercial property in Shakopee?
It can. In 2011, Scott County's emergency management director said that losing the one bridge that usually stays open in a flood would leave basically one way in and out of the county to the north, Highway 169. During high water, access can matter as much as the building itself.
Sources
- Scott County Historical Society: Fires, Floods, Blizzards, and Crashes (June 23, 2017)
- Shakopee Heritage Society: Historic Sites map and list
- Shakopee Heritage Society: Shakopee's City Hall (Oct. 16, 2017)
- Discover Shakopee (Shakopee Chamber and Visitors Bureau): Economic Development
- MPR News: Latest flood predictions put Shakopee and Jordan on alert (March 4, 2011)
Nearby towns
Commercial property inspection in Minnesota and Iowa · Home inspection in Shakopee
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