Second hearing set for Nye's proposal

A proposed high-rise apartment building in a historic district in northeast Minneapolis will get its second public hearing at 5 p.m. Tuesday when the Nye's Task Group meets to discuss the project.

In December, Twin Cities-based Schafer-Richardson said it was partnering with the owners of Nye's Polonaise to build a 29-story luxury high-rise apartment building on the site of the restaurant, which is housed in four small storefront buildings in the St. Anthony Falls Historic District. Two of those buildings are more than 100 years old and are considered contributing structures to the district, so the developer proposed moving one of the two buildings next to the other and building the tower on a six-story parking garage on the remainder of the site.

Official renderings of the project have yet to be released, but Schafer-Richardson is expected to present additional plans at the meeting.

The Rev. Daniel Griffith, a priest at the Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church next to the building site, said a representative of the parish will be at the meeting. Our Lady of Lourdes is the oldest continuously operating church in the city.

P. Victor Grambsch, president of the Nicollet Island-East Bank Neighborhood Association, said that multiple trucks have been on site for two days this week drilling core samples on the property, which includes a large parking lot.

Grambsch said that it's still "early days yet in the process," and that the project is "certainly no sure thing." One of the pending issues is whether the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission will approve the plan to move the three-story harness shop building, or build anything above eight stories in the historic district.

Jim Buchta