Development News

In the news business' current economic climate, it's hard to imagine a newspaperman with enough cash to put up a castle.

But the castle-like mansion that Swan Turnblad built in Minneapolis a century ago stands as proof that it once was possible. And as if to repeat the stunt, the mansion's current owner, the American Swedish Institute, has announced mid-recession plans for an addition to the Park Avenue icon.

It's an effort that, as with other cultural institutions' recent expansion plans, has seen a course correction. But it wasn't a scaling-back due to donations drying up. Instead, a neighbor, Ebenezer, offered for sale its seven-story nursing facility next door.  ASI bought the property and its plans for a bulky addition with parking structure sidling up close to the historic mansion went by the wayside.

Instead, the Institute re-evaluated its needs and asked HGA Architects to design an addition that while still connected to the mansion would itself be less imposing, giving the Turnblad's landmark what Scandinavians might consider a more appropriate amount of personal space.

"A slightly smaller building," says Bruce Karstadt, ASI's president and CEO, "that doesn't need to be nestled up" quite so close to the old castle. It will house an event space, offices, and a crafts studio, among other things.

Karstadt says the ASI expects to break ground next year on the $21.5 million project, which now includes more restoration of the house (now museum) that typesetter-turned-publisher Turnblad built from his labors on the Swedish-language, Minneapolis-based newspaper Svenska Amerikanska Posten.

Source: Bruce Karstadt, American Swedish Institute
Writer: Chris Steller

"I've never really seen an empty building I didn't like," says local developer Andrew Volna. In the case of the vacant Hollywood Theater in northeast Minneapolis, the buliding held extra appeal: Volna had also seen it in use, as a kid growing up in the neighborhood.

In 2008 Volna hired architects at City Desk Studio to draw up plans for renovating the 1935 landmark, one of a handful of surviving Art Deco theaters by the legendary architecture firm Liebenberg and Kaplan. After shelving the plans as the recession took hold, Volna puts the chances he'll eventually pursue the project at 50-50.

The idea of reviving the Hollywood has long bedazzled and bedeviled city officials and neighborhood activists. The City of Minneapolis bought the building in 1993; efforts toward renovation have percolated ever since, but still the building sits empty on a popular stretch of Johnson Street.

While another Minneapolis theater bearing the Liebenberg and Kaplan stamp, the Varsity in Dinkytown, has made relatively seamless transitions from movie house to photo studio to (now) busy nightclub, that building has one advantage over the Hollywood: "It never had a seive for a roof," says Volna.

Volna envisions a re-use for the Hollywood along the lines of the classic RayVic gas station on East Hennepin Avenue, which he renovated as office space for the web development firm Clockwork.

Volna's other redevelopment efforts on Minneapolis' East Side include the buliding on little-known Winter Street NE that houses his successful digital media manufacturing business, Noiseland Industries.

Source: Andrew Volna, Apiary LLC
Writer: Chris Steller

As his family prepares to move to St. Paul's Lowertown, filmmaker Troy Parkinson is getting ready to create a series of video vignettes about the downtown St. Paul neighborhood they'll soon call home. Parkinson plans to show them to the world at his "Life in Lowertown" website.

"So much is happening in Lowertown these days," Parkinson says. "It's an exciting place to be." He's taking a cue, in part, from an old Sesame Street song ("Who are the people in your neighborhood?"), Parkinson says he intends to feature the artists, events, and day-to-day life of Lowertown that he has observed while working at the Co-Co co-working space located there.

At first though, Parkinson figures the "Life in Lowertown" videos will focus on his family's move to the Galtier Plaza tower--a location that is closer to the kids' school than was the house they've been renting in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood since coming to the Twin Cities from Fargo last year.

Parkinson sees his project as a bit like the recent documentary feature "No Impact Man," about a filmmaker's family in New York City trying to have zero environmental impact (his family will likewise downsize). It's complementary, in his view, to a TPT television documentary about Lowertown that is in the works.

And if "Life in Lowertown" sounds like a project for a guy with time on his hands in a slumping economy, Parkinson says in fact he regularly works for network cable productions like "Monster Quest" (among other ventures).

Source: Troy Parkinson, Parkinson Productions
Writer: Chris Steller

People whose mouths began watering this spring, when they heard the word that street food is finally coming to downtown Minneapolis, may want to grab a granola bar to tide them over.

The first batch of applications for food-cart licenses share two problems. First, the food-service vehicles being proposed are heavier than city staff anticipated and could damage downtown sidewalks. And the prospect of setting up and taking down big vehicles at requested high-traffic sites is presenting unforeseen logistical challenges.

Some of the more recent applicants asked for smaller carts, says Ricardo Cervantes, the city's deputy director for licensing, and they'll probably be able to start serving food this summer.

City staff are looking for alternatives that will work for bigger vehicles, including finding second-choice sites. "We've got to be creative," Cervantes says. One idea: an apparatus lighter than a truck to move cart trailers into place.

Some food vendors may be able to operate out of private surface parking lots, where they could also have the option of using the property owner's power supply. (Food carts on public right-of-ways must be able to provide their own power.)

A rough winter of freeze-thaw cycles has loosened granite sidewalk pavers on the Nicollet Mall, a prime food-cart site, making them more susceptible to damage from heavy loads.

Tony Perella, general manager at Hell's Kitchen, contacted by email on an overseas trip, says his restaurant's plans for a food cart (reportedly to be called Hell on Wheels) will probably be pushed back to 2011.

Sources: Ricardo Cervantes, City of Minneapolis; Tony Perella, Hell's Kitchen
Writer: Chris Steller

With installation of its citywide wi-fi system now complete, Minneapolis last week turned on more than 100 free outdoor wi-fi hot spots.

The idea is for city government to provide "good internet access to as many people as possible," says Mayor R.T. Rybak. "Some can't afford it." Many of the free hot spots are located in areas where people have fewer resources. (See a map of locations here.)

A credit card is required to use the free hot spots, a requirement insisted upon by local law enforcement agencies, who wanted to be able to track down lawbreakers using the system.

The free hot spots are part of the city's 10-year contract with USI Wireless--an arrangement that Rybak, who has a background with internet-based business, credits with helping Minneapolis lead the way nationally on internet access for its citizens.

"In a lot of cities, [wi-fi systems] are either totally city or totally private. We thought the best way would be a hybrid, requiring the private sector to deliver community benefit."

Other community benefits are a digital inclusion fund and the Civic Garden--free access to Minneapolis government and other public-service websites throughout the city's public wi-fi system.

Rybak says this isn't the end to the innovations for wireless users in Minneapolis. "I love the image of a city where in the new information age, people can move seamlessly from office to home," he says. Rybak vows that Minneapolis will "continue pushing the envelope," testing out concepts at the cutting edge of technology.

Source: Mayor R.T. Rybak, City of Minneapolis
Writer: Chris Steller

Some places around town -- under-used, in transition -- seem to be waiting in the wings for their moment in the spotlight. Skewed Visions, a site-specific performance company based in northeast Minneapolis, makes such places part of the show.

Skewed Visions performances have taken place at sites ranging from the Grain Belt Brewery office building in Northeast to a storefront in Minneapolis' Elliot Park neighborhood and the old Drake Marble building on St. Paul's West Side.

As he ticks off those and other performance locations, founding member Charles Campbell notes that every one of the buildings Skewed Visions has visited has seen a new use since.

Moving outside the world of ready-made stages and seats is no simple matter. The company encounters many of the same obstacles that developers -- or other site-specific visual artists, such as Christo -- face when they try to make permanent or even temporary additions to the urban landscape.

Skewed Visions has a light touch at the locations where they perform, Campbell insists: "It's not a high-impact kind of thing."

At the moment, Skewed Visions has its sights set for a future production at a downtown St. Paul site that Campbell wants to keep secret until negotiations with local governmental agencies and other organizations are further along. The performance will be based loosely on "Austerlitz," a book by the late German author W.G. Sebald.  

Skewed Visions' goal is "to make something exciting to witness," Campbell says -- "to engage not just the audience but the spaces."

The next wave of development will usher out the era of manufacturing in downtown Minneapolis. If all goes well with Hunt Associates' purchase of Merit Printing in the Warehouse District, a residential tower will one day rise where a lowly, one-story printing plant now stands.

"We are the last manufacturing firm in the downtown area," says Ron Boerboom, co-owner of Merit Printing, which has outgrown its longtime home and is looking for a new site, either in Minneapolis or an inner-ring suburb. "I'm sure the city would like to see us out of here," Boerboom adds; trucks backing up to loading dock doors create congestion on the street.

But the modest structure at the corner of Second Street and First Avenue North is known for more than occasional impediments to traffic. For more than 15 years, the company has hosted one of the largest and most celebrated mural walls in Minneapolis.

Sometimes called a legal graffiti wall, Merit Printing's ever-changing mural started with the full sanction of the city, a project of the Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board. Within a few years, YCB handed off the wall to Juxtaposition Arts, the North Minneapolis hip-hop art school. Since then, Juxtaposition has completely repainted the long wall on the building's First Avenue side every year or so.

"It's a good thing," says Boerboom. "It put Merit on the map." He often sees people stop to take pictures and fashion shoots take place in the company parking lot "on a weekly basis."

Source: Ron Boerboom, Merit Printing
Writer: Chris Steller

An effort to buy the stones that once made up Minneapolis' tallest--and, many say, finest--19th-century building continues to build steam.

Recovering and re-using the massive remnants of the legendary Metropolitan Building is suddenly a cause celebre among preservationists. The campaign promises partial redemption for the building's now-lamented destruction a half-century ago, at the nadir of an urban renewal era that devastated the city's most historic section.

Granite blocks from the majestic 1890 structure sit in a huge pile in rural Delano, where waiting to be crushed for road projects. "Most of them are the size of a large car," says Jack Byers, Minneapolis planning supervisor. He says stones with delicate carvings appear to have been placed in the middle of the jetty-like pile, possibly to protect them from the elements.

Byers is working with Preservation Minnesota, Preserve Minneapolis, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Hennepin History Museum to find preservation funds, then a function, for the pieces of architect E. Townsend Mix's masterpiece.

Dean Phillips, creator of the "Bring the Metropolitan Back to Minneapolis" Facebook page, is eager to meet both challenges. He thinks the blocks would make a great a downtown urban ruins park.

"I'm a passionate fan of architecture, and Minneapolis architecture specifically," says Phillips, whose family's Phillips Distilling Company and Jay & Rose Phillips Family Foundation are in historic buildings in the Old St. Anthony district of Minneapolis. "I'm a sucker for a great story and a good puzzle. This has both of those."

Sources: Jack Byers, City of Minneapolis; Dean Phillips, Phillips Distilling Company and Jay & Rose Phillips Family Foundation
Writer: Chris Steller

The Twin Cities' stock of publicly shared bicycles goes up on June 10 from zero to 700. That's the number of bikes on the streets for the launch of Nice Ride Minnesota, a new bike-share system that's already an overnight sensation: It instantly becomes the nation's largest.

The Nice Ride bikes are available for rent from 75 kiosks around Minneapolis. A future phase will see that number grow further as the program expands into St. Paul.

The goal, says Nice Ride Minnesota executive director Bill Dossett, is simple: "To make it easy for more people to use a bike during the day."

The Nice Ride organization has been preparing for the big day with twin efforts, both massive. Programming and construction of rental kiosks was underway at Sieco Construction in the Seward neighborhood, while assembly of Nice Ride's fleet of bikes took place at Freewheel Bike, which has locations on the West Bank and along the Midtown Greenway.

Bike stations are in the city's busiest, densest places, from Uptown to Dinkytown--not, Dossett, says, in areas dominated by single-family homes.

Asked to name a sign that the program is a success (a little old lady on a Nice Ride bike, perhaps?), Dossett demurs. "It's one small piece of something that is a lot bigger than us," he says. "It's already going on." People are changing the way they move around the Twin Cities, says Dossett, and using a bike-share system is simply a part of that.

Source: Bill Dossett, Nice Ride Minnesota
Writer: Chris Steller

You can think of the Energy Innovation Corridor as a second set of tracks running parallel to the Central Corridor light-rail transit line and taking the Twin Cities to an important destination.

The Energy Innovation Corridor is not an actual transit line but a group effort by businesses, government agencies and nonprofit organizations to promote energy efficiencies along the Central Corridor, from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis.

The Central Corridor line itself is "doing about 60 percent of what needs to be done," says Brian McMahon, executive director of University UNITED, a coalition of business people along University Avenue, which will carry the light-rail trains for most of their route.

Light-rail transit already achieves many environmental goals by getting people out of cars and encouraging more efficient high-density development. But as the Central Corridor project gained steam several years ago, University UNITED convened environmental groups to discuss how to ensure that anticipated transit-oriented development along the route went the rest of the way toward sustainability.

Among the concepts getting a push by the Energy Innovation Corridor are green building, better stormwater management, and solar and thermal energy generation. Retrofitting existing buildings and taking advantage of more energy-efficient land use along the Central Corridor are also priorities.

McMahon wants to make the Central Corridor a model for a holistic approach to transforming an urban environment. "Virtually everything the world is trying to do, we could show along University Avenue," he says.

Source: Brian McMahon, University UNITED
Writer: Chris Steller

A turnaround at the St. Paul crossroads known as UniDale has been 25 years in the making, and 2010 looks to be a big year for progress there. A new mixed-use development, Frogtown Square-Kings Crossing Apartments, will mark a significant milestone in the transformation of an intersection that is due to host a major stop on the Central Corridor light-rail transit line.

The intersection of University Avenue and Dale Street was at one time notorious as the site of an adult-entertainment complex known as The Notorious Faust Theater (yes, that was the business' full and official name). The Faust gave up the ghost in 1995; standing on that site now is the new Rondo Community Outreach Library, in a building with housing above.

Kitty-corner from the library is the Frogtown Square site. The deal for the new building closed May 31, allowing construction to begin the next day. Frogtown Square will have 11,000 square feet of commercial space at street level. Kings Crossing Apartments will contain about 48 units of affordable rental housing for senior citizens on the upper three floors.

Meyer Construction, a minority-owned firm, is the general contractor for the $13 million project, which is a joint effort of four community development corporations (CDCs) and Episcopal Homes.

What might light-rail riders see at Frogtown Square's retail level? "At one point, we talked about a hat store," says Patty Lilledahl, who directs business development and finance for the City of St. Paul--a "perfect fit," if it happens, for the building's residents.

Source: Patty Lilledahl, City of St. Paul Planning and Economic Development
Writer: Chris Steller

The former Greyhound bus terminal in downtown Minneapolis completes its transformation this month into a total-package nightspot, with the opening--alongside the First Avenue and 7th Street Entry nightclubs--of the new Depot Tavern.
 
It is in the one part of the historic building that up until now has not been devoted to music, dance, and drink; most recently it held a storefront UnBank. But after what First Avenue's Madchen Davis says was "a long time coming," the Depot Tavern will serve bar food and drinks to clubbers, Twins fans and anyone else tempted by the aroma of bacon-wrapped Diamond Dogs wafting through the garage door that faces the sidewalk and will be open whenever the weather permits.
 
Davis, who works in promotions, says First Avenue saw that music fans were looking for a place to grab grub before or after a show. Even during a show, doors will allow movement between the Entry and the tavern. Davis says the Depot Tavern is about the size of the Triple Rock Social Club on the West Bank, maybe bigger.
 
With monitors streaming live video from performances taking place in First Avenue's Main Room and the neighboring Entry, Davis calls the Depot Tavern a perfect Plan B when shows are sold out. And it will also provide an opportunity for underage fans to catch acts (albeit on a flatscreen) that they might otherwise have to wait years to see.
 
Source: Madchen Davis, First Avenue
Writer: Chris Steller

In St. Paul's Lowertown, Sixth Street runs along the north side of picturesque Mears Park, but "it's a bit of a freeway offramp," says CapitolRiver Council Chair Kim Hyers. That is one reason that calming traffic by widening sidewalks into the parking lane is an attractive idea.
 
The council is asking the St. Paul City Council to consider pushing sidewalks out into the street along Sixth. The move would give restaurants a lot more room for outdoor seating, although Hyers also says "there's a flip side"--public property would be given over to private businesses' use.
 
An open question is whether, when widening sidewalks, the city should make the changes permanent--literally set in concrete--or temporary, with seasonally installed wooden risers.
 
The issue arises at a time when things are looking up for Lowertown and downtown. Hyers says she sees "a lot of momentum, with new restaurants and signs of positive change and growth." Hyers says she was excited recently to hear a developer call Lowertown the "gateway to the city."
 
She cites the Penfield project, still slated for construction, which will include a Lunds grocery store, the kind of full-service, larger store downtown has been lacking. And the Saint Paul Saints minor-league baseball team's pursuit of a new stadium on the old Gillette site in Lowertown is fueling anticipation about related development. A long-range task force is set to hire an outside consulting firm to chart the area's future development--independent of, but complementary to, the city's official vision.
 
Source: Kim Hyers, CapitolRiver Council
Writer: Chris Steller

Sanden Totten looks at the Twin Cities from his home in Minneapolis' Phillips neighborhood and his workplace in downtown St. Paul and sees infrastructure needs. Not the usual infrastructure tasks like filling last winter's crop of potholes or repairing bridges.

Totten is seeking ways to connect people with the cities' sizable inventory of murals, using technology and public input. He envisions something like bike routes criss-crossing the urban landscape that take riders from one mural to the next, via "place casting"--place-based podcasts that tell the stories behind the Cities' painted walls.  

Totten, a producer at Minnesota Public Radio's Public Insight Network, is bringing that organization's resources to bear on the challenge of mapping urban murals, first in Minneapolis, with St. Paul in the wings. He is currently soliciting ideas and mural recommendations at MPR's website and says the project will launch in July. The form it takes is still up in the air and will be determined in part by the contributions from the public.

The urge to map local murals isn't completely new or limited to Totten. Several years ago Kevin D. Hendricks set up a searchable catalog of nearly 150 Twin Cities murals, among other forms of public art, at his Start Seeing Art website. And Minneapolis City Council Member Gary Schiff has taken to posting on Facebook photos of delightful garage-door murals he encounters on his morning graffiti patrols of alleys in his South Minneapolis ward.

Source: Sanden Totten, Public Insight Network, Minnesota Public Radio
Writer: Chris Steller

This will be remembered as the year the City of Minneapolis got serious about community gardening.
 
In previous years, City Hall had an ad hoc system for entertaining occasional requests from groups who wanted to start gardens on city-owned property. Now an initiative called Homegrown Minneapolis is taking that to the streets, with a pilot program soliciting groups to lease space at 20 sites around the city.
 
These aren't just any 20 pieces of unused urban property. In a kind of "American Idol" for local vacant lots, city staff winnowed down a list of about 60 potential garden spots, ranking each on factors such as sun, safety, and access to water. An initial list of 22 properties included two that soil tests showed weren't safe for growing food. Of the remaining 20, two are spoken for: 1213 Spring St. NE, in the Beltrami neighborhood, and 3427 15th Ave. S. in Powderhorn.
 
One of the most critical criteria was whether the properties would tempt developers as the economy turns around. It wouldn't be fair to seek groups committed to gardening for sites likely to sell soon, says Karin Berkholtz, community planning manager. The city will take applications through the summer, with one-year leases for those new to gardening and multi-year leases for experienced groups.
 
Community gardens have gone in and out of fashion over the decades, appearing in city plans as far back as 1917. But this time, Berkholtz asks, "Is it a fashion or is it a paradigm shift?"
 
Source: Karin Berkholtz, City of Minneapolis
Writer: Chris Steller