Oak Terrace, Blimpie Subs and Salads, St. Peter Martial Arts
Gaylord: Oak Terrace Healthcare Center
Partners Dennis Hood and Mick Montag purchased 56-bed Gaylord Lakeview Home and 11-bed Heritage House (a memory loss facility) from the City of Gaylord in December 2007, and are in the process of changing it all to Oak Terrace Healthcare Center, with a new assisted living and independent living complex, a new memory loss wing, and a full remodel.
Its new administrator is 46-year-old RoxAnne Gosson. “I live in Mankato,” she said in a Connect Business Magazine telephone interview. “While going through college at MSU in the early ‘80s, I worked as a seniors savings consultant with a local bank. I fell in love with seniors. They have had a lot of life experiences and can teach us younger people. They would come in with their savings they wanted safe, and they trusted me with their whole hearts.”
After graduating from MSU with a B.S. in community health in the mid-‘80s, Gosson earned her nursing home administrator’s license. The Evangelical Good Samaritan Society in Mountain Lake hired her, and she stayed there about ten years. Then she became the administrator of Waterville Good Samaritan Nursing Home.
“Then through my child’s athletics, I met one of the two men owning Oak Terrace in North Mankato,” she said. “I went to work for them in 2000. Our North Mankato facility really thrived.”
In December 2007, Hood and Montag purchased Gaylord Lakeview Home, and changed its name. The intent of buying was to add an assisted living and independent living campus around the nursing home, similar to the North Mankato facility.
Said Gosson, “Currently, we are under construction, and will be over the next eighteen months. We are in the process of building on a brand new wing to the nursing home, remodeling the lower level of the nursing home, and putting in senior independent apartments with lake walkouts.”
The new secured memory loss wing will have up to 16 beds, and the assisted and independent living building up to 40 apartments.
Telephone: 507-237-2911.
Gaylord: Blimpie Subs and Salads
On or around May 20, Blimpie Subs and Salads opens where State Highways 22, 5, and 19 meet in downtown Gaylord. Owner Jerry Hahn also owns Jerry’s Home Quality Foods in Gaylord and Arlington.
“I grew up in the grocery business working under my father, who managed a grocery store in Winnebago,” said 45-year-old Hahn in a Connect Business Magazine telephone interview. “After graduating from what is now South Central College, I took my first job in Bancroft, Iowa, as a supermarket manager with the same ownership group that owned by father’s Winnebago store. So I was doing what my father had done.”
Northwest Supermarkets owned thirteen stores. In 1986, the ownership of the grocery chain changed, and Hahn asked for a transfer to Gaylord, if possible, the city where he had been born and where his grandparents and other relatives lived. The Gaylord store did only half the business of the Bancroft location. Eventually, Hahn received his requested transfer, and purchased the location from the ownership in February 1999. In December 1999, he purchased a second grocery, this one in Arlington.
He said, “I’d had this vision for a fast-food restaurant of some sort in Gaylord for a long time. The only ‘fast food’ right now could be the fast service you can get out of our local supermarket deli. With Blimpie, we are offering the town a fast-food franchise business.”
Hahn chose Blimpie, after thoroughly researching all options, because it was the best choice given the list of franchises that could site in Gaylord. The chain slices all its meats fresh, and has a menu that includes fresh-sliced subs, panini grilled subs, hot subs, wraps, soups, and a variety of sauces and breads. The business also offers catering.
Said Hahn: “From the supermarket to the fast-food business—it’s all about taking care of people’s needs, and striving for the best customer service we can offer.”
Address: 520 Main Avenue. Website: blimpie.com.
St. Peter: St. Peter Martial Arts
Bill Hough opened St. Peter Martial Arts last December on the second floor of 101 West Broadway.
Trained in hand-to-hand combat as a U.S. Army infantry soldier, Hough, as a sergeant, eventually became a local Army recruiter. In 1993, fresh out of the military, he wanted to have an activity to enjoy with his 5-year-old son Joshua. “My son had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),” said Hough in a telephone interview. “He needed an outlet to help him focus and concentrate. Martial arts is great for that.”
Along with his son, Hough became a martial arts student, and—as he would learn later—the training would help with his own ADHD, too.
“Four years ago, I had the opportunity to buy American Academy of Tae Kwon Do from my instructor,” he said. Hough moved the school to 301 Madison Avenue, and renamed it Mankato Martial Arts. Last December, he opened St. Peter Martial Arts at 101 West Broadway.
He said, “I was fortunate to already have a man working for me part-time that was a black belt. Jason Eisele is a phenomenal martial arts instructor. Running a location like ours (in St. Peter) was something he always wanted to do, so he jumped at it.”
Hough enjoys interacting with people, and especially taking 10-year-old kids and watching them develop over the years. “We have a lot of kids that have been with us four years now,” he said, “and it is rewarding just to see how their attitudes and the way they look at things change. It has happened more than once that a child has been failing in school, been out of control at home, and after six or so months we begin seeing dramatic changes. Kids who were failing have become honor students.” He attributed the changes to the students learning goal setting, respect for others, and taking responsibility.
The company has hired a judo instructor who is an American Black Belt Hall of Fame member.
Contact: Mankatomartialarts.com Telephone: 386-7400.
