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🌷 Mid-May miscellanea

Numerous development updates, spring festivals, Laune's rhubarb trade, and much more.

Longfellow Whatever
— 7 min read
🌷 Mid-May miscellanea

🏭 The plan to replace the vacant "Checkerboard" grain elevator complex at 38th and Cheatham received another milestone approval Tuesday. The city's Heritage Preservation Committee approved the plan to demolish 21 grain silos on the site while keeping the 180-foot-tall "headhouse," the tallest structure in the neighborhood.

The plan for the site involves the nonprofit developer Trellis building 98 units of affordable apartments on the north end, and local developer Hall-Sweeney building market-rate apartments on the south end. The two buildings would be conjoined by the 96-year-old headhouse, the first few floors of which would be renovated into a lobby and amenities.

At the hearing, Trellis's project manager said the group investigated a number of ways of reusing the silos, but ultimately found that each was unfeasible. Though several commissioners and members of the public rued the loss of another piece of Hiawatha's grain milling history, the group approved the plan on a 6-1 vote, on the grounds that the reuse alternatives were financially unfeasible. (The group came to the same conclusion last year about the ADM Nokomis Mill on 35th and Hiawatha, which is still awaiting demolition.)

Construction on Trellis's affordable apartment building is set to begin later this year. The market-rate apartments are still in the planning stage.

🏗️ Speaking of affordable housing along Hiawatha: Construction on the long-planned Snelling Yards apartments at 44th and Snelling is scheduled to be completed by August. The four-story, 95-unit affordable apartment building marks the second phase of a project that started with the neighboring Hillock affordable senior apartments in 2023 on the site of a vacant city maintenance building. The new units are geared toward larger families and restricted to people making less than 60 percent of the area's median income. The property manager has opened a temporary leasing office at 4020 Minnehaha Ave for interested tenants.

🏛️ City officials will ask the Minneapolis Planning Commission for approval to move forward with construction at 3000 Minnehaha Avenue, the former home of the MPD Third Precinct that has sat empty since it was damaged after the murder of George Floyd. The city is proposing to renovate and expand the building into a headquarters for its election services known as the Minneapolis Democracy Center, while leasing out 8,000 square feet of ground-floor space to a yet-undecided tenant.

The meeting will take place Monday, May 18, at 4:30 and will include a public comment period. The agenda isn't published yet, but the general plans are available here.

Rendering of the Minneapolis Democracy Center, looking southeast from Lake and Snelling 📸: City of Minneapolis

🏗️ At Tuesday's school board meeting, district officials gave a detailed presentation on the latest plans for building a new home for Anishinabe Academy on the former Cooper School site, in preparation for asking the board to authorize them to move on to detailed design. While the official vote won't happen until June 9, school board directors expressed enthusiasm for the plan, which calls for demolishing the current Cooper School building and constructing a 128,000-square-foot facility in its place, surrounded by a mix of natural areas.

Planners estimate the project will cost between $90 million and $105 million and could be completed in time for the 2028-2029 school year.

Conceptual rendering for the proposed Anishinabe Academy (📸: MPS)

🛝 Speaking of the Cooper site: The group of neighbors that rallied to save the Cooper School Playground from demolition are hosting a celebration of the rebuilt playground on Saturday at 11. It'll feature free food, kids' activities, and some words from the people involved. The group is also fundraising to add picnic tables to the site.

Staff from Minneapolis Public Schools will also be on hand to discuss plans for the aforementioned Anishinabe Academy project. The proposed plan situates the building's entrance on the current site of the playground.

The renovated Cooper School Playground