Location, Location, Location

North Branch is strategically located on Interstate 35, just 40 miles north of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan area. Highway 95 serves as the main east-west arterial in the community, linking the city to other major transportation corridors and eastern Wisconsin. The city is encircled by three of the State’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA): Minneapolis-St. Paul is 40 miles to the south, Duluth is 97 miles to the north, and St. Cloud is 59 miles to the west.

Combined, the three MSA’s have a growing population of 3,380,013.

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Regional Commercial Center The former Tanger Outlet, now North Branch Outlet, plus the Furniture Outlet Stores are well-known to those traveling I-35. The North Branch Market Place will add to this westside retail mix with its 80,000 SF Shopko building (opening scheduled October, 2008), 53,000 SF Jerry's County Market (opening scheduled January, 2009), and the 20,000 SF "Strip" Commercial building housing 13 other businesses.

On the eastside is Gateway South commercial area with restaurants, a motel, and office buildings. Further east is downtown that includes historic downtown North Branch.