Agenda Packets - 1996/04/08 - Laserfiche WebLink

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REAL ESTATE $2.3 million awarded in initial funding round Met Council four ndeve1opnientprnjects By Peter Kafka • $770,000 to a 62-acre Minnetonka Staff reporter development that will include 250,000 square The city of Minnetonka wants to build a. feet of retail space and 63 housing units.The strip mall;St.Paul wants to demolish one and award is meant to help the city and the pro-, return it to wetlands. Officials at the ject's developer, St. Paul-based CSM Corp., Metropolitan Council,who say both commu- lay out a series of pedestrian walkways to tie nities are fighting suburban sprawl, are the project together and connect it to a neigh- rewarding the two cities with,grant money. boring transit hub. The two cities are among the four recipi- • $740,000.to a Minneapolis project at ents of$2.3 million the Met Council awarded Fourth and Lake streets that will create an this week as part of its inaugural "Livable incubator — offices for small business star= Communities Demonstration Account," tups—in an economically precarious part of designed to prod cities into promoting cre- the city. ative redevelopment. • $650,000 to a St. Paul project-that will The council will award-another$2.3 mil- acquire and demolish the struggling Phalen lion this summer and will pass out $4.1 mil- Shopping center, located at Prosperity and lion a year in the future. - Magnolia avenues, and replace it with wet- The money,which comes'from state funds lands;the project is part of a 100-acre effort to. :` previously earmarked for mosquito control,is revitalize the city's east side. the result of state legislation approved last • $139,000 to a St. Louis Park project to - year that charges the council with promoting revitalize older commercial properties on "local economic revitalization." Excelsior Boulevard east of Highway 100. The demonstration account projects are Met Council officials said the grants 't meant to reward cities that use space effi- should be viewed as encouragement, not a ciently and tie together elements like shop- complete financing package. ping, housing and transportation, said Craig Still, the grant "is huge," said Curt Rapp, the council's community development Milburn, executive director of the East Side director. Area Business Association, a private group That,in turn,is supposed to encourage pri- working on the Phalen project. vate developers to do the same,he said. "It's the first in-hand money we have dedi- The four projects that received the initial cated to the project,which will give us the abil- award vary in scope: ity to leverage other funds now,"he said. ■ ai....1.11 444 3-I5-`I(„