Hammer time: Minneapolis takes the first swing at the worst Kmart

Minneapolis officials, past and present, lined up Sunday to take a swing at nobody's favorite Kmart.

"At long last, Minneapolis," said Mayor Jacob Frey, stepping up eagerly to a line of ceremonial sledgehammers in front of a ceremonial slab of wallboard. "This Kmart is coming down, and Nicollet Avenue is opening back up."

There was a time when building a big-box store in the middle of a busy city street sounded like a good idea to Minneapolis planners. That time was the 1970s.

The city spent the next five decades regretting what it did to Nicollet Avenue and to itself.

Year after year, administration after administration worked to buy back the 10-acre site, one piece at a time, until it regained the right to smash that Kmart to smithereens and clear a path to Eat Street. The fire that tore through the abandoned building last week accelerated the demolition that had been planned for the spring.

But first, there were plenty of people in Minneapolis who wanted to take a parting whack at Kmart.

"I can't wait to get smashed on a Sunday morning," joked former Mayor R.T. Rybak, before hefting a sledgehammer and taking a few symbolic swings at a slab of wallboard.

Not quite as satisfying as hammering the actual building. Although Frey did take a few cathartic whacks at a concrete pylon in front of the store before he turned in his sledgehammer.

"I don't think we all should spend time questioning what is now viewed as one of the worst urban planning decisions ever made," said Frey, a mayor who knows a thing or two about having his decisions second-guessed.

"Because here's the thing: You make decisions at the time, with the facts that you have before you," he added. "I'm sure 25 years from now, there are decisions we made that were brilliant, and there were decisions that we made that probably could use some additional thought."

Nicollet Avenue — Eat Street interrupted by a Kmart — will slowly reconnect, starting in 2025 when road work begins.

Once the Kmart is history, Minneapolis will have a 10-acre blank canvas at the intersection of Lake Street and Nicollet to create the future.

You can see some of those plans at the city's New Nicollet site, full of community surveys and proposed designs for the once and future intersection for residents to study and respond to a survey about their top priorities for the site.

In the plans, all things are possible. There could be bustling shops and theoretically affordable housing. Wide shady sidewalks could wind from the nearby bus rapid transit hub to the nearby Midtown Greenway. There could be parks and plazas and pavilions. There could be sidewalk cafes and music stages and sport courts.

Maybe in one of those parks, they'll raise a memorial, in the middle of a path, in everyone's way.

Here lies the Lake Street Kmart. On this spot, on this day, Minneapolis took a swing at something better.