Former Kmart and Nicollet Ave Open House
The City of Minneapolis is ready to reconnect Nicollet Avenue to Lake Street and redevelop the former Kmart site, a 10 acre parcel of land, with a high-density, mixed-use, walkable district that reflects the community.
Though the street grid was interrupted when Kmart was constructed in 1977, over the intervening decades the store provided many nearby residents with a place to purchase affordable household items within walking distance.
It also contributed to a climate that allowed for many new immigrant families, many of them Vietnamese, Chinese, and Hmong, to purchase commercial space for new restaurants, ethnic grocery stores, and other small businesses -- many of which are still serving community members today.
This redevelopment and the reconnection of Nicollet Avenue at Lake Street represents a once in a generation opportunity to help reshape the future of the site in a way that aims to directly contribute to an increased quality of life for those living and working in the immediate area.
The City of Minneapolis has drafted five high-level project goals and will be asking for community feedback on how to actualize those goals in a manner that best serves them and their neighbors. The goals are the following:
Reconnect people and places
Build safe, equitable, and sustainable transportation networks
Build for who is there
Live, work, play and shop there
Safe and healthy communities
The project will be informed by community input, established policy documents, and technical analysis.
The engagement process is being co-led by City staff, NEOO Partners, Inc. -- a real estate and community engagement planning firm based out of St. Paul and a coalition of community organizations who operate directly and hold relationships with residents, small business owners, and property owners in the identified project area including:
Whittier Alliance, Lyndale Neighborhood Organization, Fortune Relief and Youth Empowerment Organization (FRAYEO), Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization (CANDO), Phillips West Neighborhood Organization, Lake Street Council, and other partner organizations supporting targeted outreach to key community groups.
Engagement activities will be focused on reaching those most directly impacted by the redevelopment and communities who have historically been under-engaged in development and planning decisions.
While the City established policies to provide high level guidance for development, many key pieces are still to be determined by feedback from community members, partner agencies and consultants. Some of those considerations are:
Street design and function
Streetscape design
Outdoor gathering space uses, types, locations and designs
How the public spaces will be designed to reflect cultural communities.
The overall percentage of affordable units, affordability levels, and market-rate units across the development site.
Size and placement of business locations within new development.
How to build for the existing residents.
How to prioritize existing local businesses and encourage local entrepreneurship.
The City will implement strategies to prevent the involuntary displacement of existing businesses and residents, especially vulnerable populations, such as residents living below the poverty level, the elderly, and people with disabilities from nearby communities.
After many years of work by a number of elected officials, City staff, and community members to regain control of the site, the time has come for community members and the City to work together on establishing a new vision.
In the months ahead, there will be many different ways to engage on this project, and we aim to provide information and updates through varied types of communications channels.
The City will host an open house on October 25, 2022, to share the project's timeline with stakeholders, and a project survey is currently live for this phase of the engagement.
You can sign up for email or text message updates from the City’s govdelivery service on the City’s project webpage and follow the City and/or Whittier Alliance’s social media channels.