When the City of Albert Lea spent $2 million to save “The Old Bank Building” in 2006 it drew criticism from people wondering why you’d spend that kind of money to save an empty building. Once an architectural gem of southern Minnesota, the former Freeborn National Bank Building had fallen into disrepair over decades of abandonment and vacancy. In 2018, Mortarr decided that rather than build new, they’d breathe new life into this iconic downtown structure. Watch the impact it has on a community when civic and business leaders work together to reinvest in history and redefine the future of what it means to live and work in small-town USA.