Latest news with #Lunds
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ground is broken for next phase projects at St. Paul's Highland Bridge
With a ceremonial toss of a shovel of dirt, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter joined developers with the Ryan Cos. along Ford Parkway this week to break ground on a long-stalled, $68 million phase of construction within Highland Bridge, which will include the first retail additions since Lunds and Byerlys relocated a nearby store there in September 2022. Highland Bridge, which is about 50% developed, was once the site of the Ford Motor Co.'s Twin Cities assembly plant, which closed in December 2011, leading into more than 13 years of planning, soil remediation and building construction. That construction has slowed, though not entirely stopped, in the era of high interest rates, softer urban housing demand and rent control, which the city of St. Paul permanently rolled back last month for new construction. Work on the five new additions — spanning four single-level retail buildings, a 97-unit mixed-use apartment building with ground-level retail, and a two-level parking structure — is expected to get underway in earnest this summer and continue into October or November 2026. Given the current state of interest rates, financing and urban housing demand, 'it is challenging right now to do market-rate, multi-family,' said Maureen Michalski, a senior vice president of development with the Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos., 'but we're committed to the site. Weidner Apartment Homes is committed to the site. We're willing to advance the site based on this being a legacy project for us.' One of the single-story structures to be erected closest to Lunds and Byerlys already has a tenant lined up — Tierra Encantada, a Spanish-immersion daycare that plans to make Highland Bridge its 10th Minnesota location. The three other single-story structures, which will front Ford Parkway, will be built on more of an 'if you build it, they will come' model, with hopes of attracting retail to one of the more affluent corners of the city. Together with the ground-level of the future mixed-use building, they'll total 35,000 square feet of retail, Michalski said. The 133-acre Highland Bridge development also houses a two-story medical office building anchored by M Health Fairview, though most of the other construction to date has been residential, and until now, hundreds of units of planned market-rate housing have been on pause for years. That pause is over, according to the Ryan Cos. 'We have a variety of actions taken at the (city) council level that helped,' Michalski said, noting recent changes to tax increment financing agreements and other site controls. 'We essentially looked at the existing redevelopment agreement and minimum assessment agreement, and made some reallocations and rebalancing there … basically changing some timing of things.' The latest buildings, to be developed by the Ryan Cos. and located between Cretin Avenue and Mount Curve Boulevard, will be bisected by a new pedestrian promenade that will emerge at an angle from a small plaza to be located near Lunds at Ford Parkway and Cretin Ave. The future promenade will extend to an existing plaza located near Marvella 2190, the senior independent living apartment complex at 2190 Hillcrest Ave. 'It's a very desirable location,' Michalski said. 'Marvella 2190, which just opened in the spring, was fully leased when it opened in March.' Roads and infrastructure along the far southern end of the site are being completed south of Montreal Avenue and east of Cretin Avenue. Throughout Highland Bridge, four parks have opened to the public. Michalski said Weidner Apartment Homes plans to begin work next year on a roughly 170-unit apartment building south of the site, toward Bohland and Cretin avenues, and Presbyterian Homes plans additional senior housing. Elsewhere within the 133-acre development, six of 20 single-family lots have been sold, Michalski said, and about 150 upscale Pulte rowhomes have been completed to date. Overall, Highland Bridge currently spans about 1,000 units of residential housing, much of it located within multi-family developments and senior apartments built close to Ford Parkway. Of that total, about 200 units would qualify as affordable housing, much of it assembled with the help of tax incentives known as tax increment financing, using market-rate development to subsidize the affordable units. The Lumin, affordable senior apartments developed by CommonBond Communities, and Project for Pride in Living's Restoring Waters, which caters to families that have experienced homelessness, were constructed with funding derived in part from the two market-rate Marvella senior housing projects. Restoring Waters is now the headquarters for Emma Norton Services. St. Paul: At Highland Bridge, Weidner Homes, Ryan Cos. win concessions St. Paul City Council ends rent control for housing built after 2004 St. Paul: Ryan Cos. plan for four one-story buildings along Ford Parkway inch closer to approval by default
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Downtown St. Paul Lunds and Byerlys closes permanently on March 26
Downtown St. Paul will lose its last grocery store when the Lunds and Byerlys on East 10th Street closes on March 26. Tres Lund, chief executive officer of the Edina-based supermarket chain, said the grocery, which opened at 115 East 10th St. in 2014, had been profitable in its first seven or eight years, but struggled during the pandemic when downtown employers shifted to remote work. An increase in store security expenses and decrease in customer visits left operating costs far outpacing sales, and staffers were tough to hold onto amid incidents of shoplifting, harassment, vandalism and an arson that caused upwards of $500,000 in damage in 2022. 'After the arson and the fire, I had a lot of outreach from folks who were very concerned, but they realized our resolve was to get that store reopened within four days, in record time,' said Lund on Friday, who predicted better days ahead for downtown despite its well-documented challenges. 'Our capital city is going to pull through this. There are too many business leaders and city staff, and people who care so deeply about weathering this storm.' Lund said he had met with city officials and the property owner on Wednesday to discuss preserving the space to someday accommodate another grocer. 'We are going to have our shoulder into helping the city with a grocery alternative to the degree that's possible,' said Lund, noting the Downtown Development Corporation, a new nonprofit real estate subsidiary of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance, was also engaged 'to ensure we can actively bring that to fruition.' Lunds will continue to offer online delivery in the area. In late 2011, a heavily divided St. Paul City Council voted 4-3 to complete the 254-unit Penfield development after a previous developer walked away during the economic downtown. The decision not only installed new luxury housing in a corner of downtown better known for small artist studios. It also drew Lunds, which was hailed at its opening in 2014 as a badly-needed addition to an increasingly-residential downtown short on grocery options. The city was able to sell the development in 2016 to real estate investment company Jones Lang LaSalle for a profit. 'We opened this store early in St. Paul because of the population base,' he said. 'We were excited then about the development prospects, and certainly the Penfield project. We were profitable within that year-plus, and then for seven years. We were on a good trend, and then things began to change, most significantly the pandemic. The issue was remote work, and that was a national and international issue.' Efforts to switch up food offerings, reduce store hours last year and make other changes were unable to make the math work on paper. 'This was the downtown grocery store, and every neighborhood needs a grocery store,' said Council Member Rebecca Noecker on Friday. 'Even in the midst of this difficult decision, they've agreed to leave all of their equipment in place, and the landlord has agreed to that. All the shelving, all the coolers, all the refrigeration will still be there. My priority is going to be working with city staff to try to find another grocer who wants to come into the space, knowing all the infrastructure will be there for them.' Lund said his company has maintained a grocery for more than 40 years in Highland Park, which shifted locations on Ford Parkway in 2022 into freshly-built space within the Highland Bridge development. Though initial planning was put on hold in 2020, Lunds still plans a mixed-use development on Grand Avenue that would incorporate apartments above a new grocery, replacing the former home of a North Face clothing retailer and surrounding real estate around 799 Grand Ave. 'We're still going to develop land on Grand Avenue at some point. We see that as a development opportunity,' said Lund, noting that since the 2022 arson at the downtown location, 'my relationship has grown significantly with Mayor Carter as well as other business leaders, working on the framework to get through this difficult time.' Lund said his company had worked with the St. Paul Area Chamber and the Downtown Alliance on public surveys of the Central Business District to assess perceptions of crime downtown, which have shown improvement as crime trends have softened. Still, he said, downtown suffers because too many city, county and state employees now work remotely, even as some employers in the private sector begin to call their employees back to the office. 'Between the city, county and the state, that's a pretty significant population,' Lund said. 'There is national recognition that workforce presence is part of a bustling city. That is well within the mayor, and county and state to influence. Our capital city needs us back. Many businesses that also experienced remote work, you're seeing a national trend to shift that back.' Lund said the Downtown Alliance's Downtown Investment Strategy, released last year, and the launch of the Downtown Development Corporation were bright spots, and the opening of the new Pedro Park this fall and several office-to-housing conversions in the pipeline gave him optimism for the future. For downtown St. Paul, 'there is an upcoming resurgence,' Lund predicted. 'None of us can put our finger to a specific date, but things will get better.' Local News | Concert review: Justin Timberlake dazzled the crowd at the X, at least the ones who could see him Local News | New nonprofit and its leader provide a strategy for downtown St. Paul's revival Local News | Over a St. Paul Valentine's Day lunch hour, judges married 21 couples for free in Ramsey County Local News | Want to sing at the Ordway? All ability levels invited for Minnesota Bach Festival. Local News | Folk rock act the Lumineers to return to St. Paul in July
CBS News
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Apple Valley mom starts matchmaking service to help people with intellectual disabilities find love
APPLE VALLEY, Minn. — It's the most romantic week of the year, and an Apple Valley mom is doing something special in honor of her favorite show, "Love on the Spectrum". A dedicated foodie, an athlete, a devoted Lunds employee and a movie buff — Nicolas Diaz is a well-rounded guy. So it was only natural, at 20, that he wanted to get on the dating apps. "I panicked and blurted out, 'No, and never ask me that again.'" Katherine Gyolai, his mom, said. Gyolai had heard horror stories about people with intellectual disabilities getting scammed online, but she knows what the heart wants. "We are all ingrained to want love and connection and relationship and friendship, whether we have a disability or not," she said. "That doesn't go away because you have an extra chromosome. That's still there." Diaz says he knows what he is looking for. "For love, relationship, also about supporting each other," he said. "My dream and my hope is to get a wife sometime. Everybody who has Down syndrome deserves support and love." His mom started looking for appropriate apps. "I couldn't find anything so I thought, 'Well I think I am the person to create it.'" Gyolai said. She started a matchmaking service for people with intellectual disabilities called Find Love Safely. Diaz has already had three dates with a young woman named Raya. "I think she's cute and wonderful," he said. Gyolai has been coaching him and other clients with videos about social cues. "I want to see a Find Love Safely in every single major city in the United States," Gyolai said. Finding Love Safely is hosting a speed dating mixer for people with intellectual disabilities on Thursday in St. Paul. To sign up and to find out about matchmaking services, click here.
