The town continued to grow slowly and developed a number of businesses and a "downtown" on the east side of the Mississippi along U.S. Highway 10. In the 1960s, the highway was re-routed, greatly contributing to the demise of the downtown area. The later construction of a new bridge over the Mississippi in the early 1980s replaced the remaining businesses. This and Sartell’s nearby location to St. Cloud, Minnesota's major retail center account for Sartell's lack of a traditional "downtown".