In the coming months, the building that once housed the old Totino’s restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis will be torn down to make way for Red 20, a 130-unit apartment building from local developer Schafer Richardson.
The six-story development on Central Avenue Northeast will include 11,000 square feet of first-floor retail space and a couple of levels of underground parking, according to information from the Nicollet Island-East Bank Neighborhood Association.
Victor Grambsch, who chairs the neighborhood group, says the community has embraced the development plan. “We backed the project. We thought this was a good addition to the neighborhood,” especially to replace a vacant building.
Some people wanted to save the Totino’s building, but “it’s a complete wreck,” and an environmental hazard, he says.
As for Red 20, some people have even thought the building should be bigger, he says. Higher-density development is something the neighborhood will be looking at as it draws up its small area plan, he says.
Red 20 will also be bike-friendly, with parking for around 100 bikes and a small bike repair business, he adds. Other amenities include a dog park and a rooftop patio. In time, the building will have some kind of memorial to honor Rose Totino, the namesake of the site’s former Italian restaurant, he says.
Red 20 is the first housing development of its scale to come to the historic Old St. Anthony neighborhood in at least a decade, according to the
Star Tribune. “Several redevelopment plans have been discussed for former commercial sites in the neighborhood, creating the expectation that Old St. Anthony could add several hundred more housing units,” the story states.
After the developer closes on the site, construction could begin this summer and the buidling could open in 2014, the story reads.
Source: Victor Grambsch, chair, Nicollet Island-East Bank Neighborhood Association
Writer: Anna Pratt