The city of Minneapolis is moving forward with its years-long goal to revitalize the intersection of Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue, though demolition of the old Kmart building is at least two years away.
Redevelopment plan for former Minneapolis Kmart site to begin early next year
Construction on the 10-acre site could begin in 2024.
December 15, 2021 at 4:20PM
Last week, the City Council approved the next steps for redeveloping the former Kmart site in what's become a racially diverse neighborhood in south Minneapolis.
The first phase of the 10-acre redevelopment project will kick off early next year. It includes gathering feedback from the community on how the site should be redeveloped. The next step, which requires council approval, will focus on redesigning Nicollet Avenue and future spaces for parks and playgrounds as well as walking and biking connections. The goal is a high-density, walkable mixed-use neighborhood.
"The two primary things that we are trying to achieve are reconnecting Nicollet Avenue ... and developing the remaining acreage into a mixed use urban district," said Rebecca Parrell, the city's project supervisor. "I think it provides a great opportunity to bring more housing and more goods and services" to the area.
It's still unknown how much the project will cost and when construction will begin. But Parrell said the new Nicollet street project could start in the spring of 2024.
Kmart shuttered amid the unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 after more than four decades in business. In December 2020, the city acquired full ownership of the site, which includes the former Kmart building, for $22.4 million.
City officials said reopening the street by bringing back a thoroughfare will reconnect neighborhoods and set the stage for new development on land currently home to surface parking lots, a vacant grocery store building and a temporary post office. The U.S. Postal Service has been renting a portion of the Kmart building for at least a year after two of its south Minneapolis facilities were destroyed in the riots.
The post office pays roughly $36,000 a month for leasing the space and has the option to stay until September 2023, Parrell said.
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