Minneapolis debuts design options for redevelopment of former Kmart
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The site of the old Kmart site in south Minneapolis drew over 500 people on Tuesday evening to weigh in on the highly anticipated redevelopment of the abandoned shopping center and Nicollet Avenue around it.
It's the first time Minneapolis has debuted design concept plans to the public, though they are preliminary plans that only include greening, parks and walkways. Proposals for housing, businesses and more are still to come.
City planner Adrienne Bockeim has been working on the Nicollet redevelopment project since 2018 and said the concept plans were based on community feedback.
“We don't want to make the same mistake that we made in the 1970s, but we also want to move fast enough that, you know, so we don't lose steam,” said Bockheim.
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For many community members like 46-year-old Paul Thebus, reopening Nicollet Avenue is a top priority. All of the current designs include reopening Nicollet.
“My wife and I and our kids, we've biked up and down the Greenway but it's really hard to navigate around here to go from the south side of Nicollet to the north side,” said Thebus. “And we know that there are really nice restaurants on both of them. And it would be nice if it was connected by a bike lane and rapid transit line that people could just hop on and go up and down and go to the different restaurants without having to bring their car and park and all that.”
What to know about this Kmart site saga
The 10-acre site on Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue was built in the ‘70s. The original vision was to construct an indoor shopping mall and bring in dozens of retailers. City planners also wanted to include a bowling alley, cineplex and health club.
The city borrowed $8 million to pay for the site in the ‘70s, or about $56 million adjusted for inflation in 2023 dollars — a move that future leaders would call the worst planning decision in Minneapolis history.
Initial plans did not involve closing off Nicollet. But when the Kmart store opened on the site in 1978, it blocked off an essential artery connecting the north and south side of Minneapolis.
Over the decades, many have said the building has negatively impacted businesses and economic development in the surrounding area.
The city started buying pieces of land on the site in hopes of redeveloping it, and in 2020, Minneapolis paid Kmart’s corporate owner $9.1 million to end the store’s lease early — it was scheduled to expire in 2053 — and close the site.
The site has sat unused since. On Tuesday, the site was fenced off and covered in graffiti and art murals, and a homeless encampment was present on the east side of the former Kmart on Blaisdell Avenue.
Community wants green space, pedestrian walkways in future plans
Tuesday’s event is part of the city’s third stage of getting public input on what to do with the site. Bockheim said they’ve been doing public engagement with local communities for the past year and a half and estimates they’ve received around 15,000 responses on what the redevelopment should look like.
That input was used to draw up the three concept plans. Attendees on Tuesday filled out a survey to share which of the plans they preferred. The survey is available online for those interested in putting their vote on a concept design.
“Some of the things that the community was really focused on was affordable housing, space for local businesses, green space and greening,” said Bockheim, who oversees the public space aspect of the project.
Feedback also indicated a need for pedestrian spaces where people can walk through. The plans will also include reconnecting the north and south side of Nicollet.
“We've heard a lot from the community about the impact that the Kmart splitting up Nicollet had to the community at that time, really cut off the neighborhoods from each other,” said Kelsey Fogt, senior transportation planner overseeing the street redevelopment. “So with the street project in particular, we'll be looking to reconnect those communities and that commercial corridor to really open up some new opportunities for the neighborhoods in this area.”
The three concept designs add pedestrian walkways, green space and more capacity for recreational use and gatherings.
Concept A seeks to expand the park along the Midtown Greenway to “encourage visibility and safety of the biking and walking trail.” The park will also serve as a “gateway” into Eat Street and the newly redeveloped Nicollet Avenue.
It will also add two public spaces for community events and have an “informal bike connection” through the park from nearby bike lanes and the Greenway.
In contrast, Concept B prioritizes a rectangular park along the new Nicollet Avenue with a wide pedestrian walkway that will have “future shopping.” It will include more green space, recreational opportunities and extra sidewalk room along Lake Street for pedestrians and bikes.
The last design, Concept C, integrates a corner park on the east side of the site with potential for green space and gatherings. It will also have a diagonal walkway with a bikeway connecting the Greenway entrance on the northeast corner and the bike crossing at Blaisdell and Lake Street.
Caitlyn Seidel, a 19-year-old student at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, lives in the Whittier neighborhood and hopes to see a community garden and open lawn areas for music gatherings and other live events.
“I’m young, and I know that I’m going to end up living here for a long period,” said Seidel. “I want the area that I live in to be safe and good for a potential family, for other families. For just people in general, I think it’s very important to have human connection in a community and especially in a natural environment instead of just cars, and concrete and yelling.”
Demolition scheduled for March; construction to begin in 2025
The city’s redevelopment team is also partnering with local groups like Whittier Alliance, Lyndale Neighborhood Association and Frayeo, a Somali youth organization, to make sure the surrounding communities' needs are heard.
“In this site itself, we have such a vibrant community around here, many different cultural communities,” said Bockheim. “We’re also trying to really integrate that into all the different aspects of the site.”
Part of that means searching for artists to create public artwork on the site to reflect the stories of local communities. Funding is already carved out to commission the artwork.
Residents have also brought up concerns about gentrification, which Bockheim said “makes sense with any redevelopment project.”
“We hired the Urban Land Institute of Minnesota to bring in experts both local and national to look at precedent studies from around the country,” said Bockheim. “So those recommendations of strategies are to both prevent and mitigate gentrification from happening on the site.”
The preliminary estimate for reconnecting Nicollet Avenue and replacing the bridge over the Midtown Greenway is around $17 million, but will likely change as the street and public space design become more finalized. After finishing phase three of public engagement, Bockheim said they’ll take what they hear from community members and develop a conceptual layout to present early next year to the Minneapolis City Council.
The demolition of Kmart is scheduled for March 2024 and construction road and bridge portion of the project will begin in 2025. City officials said other redevelopment won’t begin until 2027. But Bockheim and Fogt are hopeful that their team will find a solution for the street and public space.
“I can't wait to be here however many years in the future and just be sitting in a green space with lots of trees overhead and just watching groups of people enjoying the space and being able to fulfill their day-to-day needs by walking through this area,” said Bockheim.
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