Harris, Minnesota is located an hour north of the Twin Cities in central Minnesota. This small town of 1,100 people was awarded an Empowering Small Minnesota Communities (ESMC) grant by the University of Minnesota in October of 2025 to study how to attract new development, revitalize its historic core, and evaluate future growth patterns. Harris has beautiful parks, convenient access to Interstate 35, and vacant parcels in its core that could be redeveloped.

Cardo, along with Streetfront Development, led a visioning process to provide an urban designer’s and developer’s perspective on redevelopment of the historic downtown. Over six months the team evaluated the existing conditions, recommended key opportunity sites, developed a phasing strategy, and illustrated specific site plans that would leverage the existing community assets. These ideas, strategies, and design concepts were created with key community members and presented to the City Council in May of 2026.