Another milestone in decades long goal to reconnect Nicollet Ave in Minneapolis

Minneapolis Kmart site redevelopment latest

After decades of discussion, Minneapolis leaders are now seeking bids to develop land that was once home to a Kmart on Nicollet Avenue. FOX 9?s Rob Olson has the latest.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - For nearly two years, the giant piece of real estate at Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue has been vacant, the former K-Mart demolished.

For a couple of decades, city leaders had sought to reconnect Nicollet, which the K-Mart development severed in the late 1970s.

At long last, the city’s seeking developers to start the first phase of construction here, but the changes still remain years away.

Request for bids

What we know:

This week, the City of Minneapolis put out the formal Request For Proposals to developers to bid on phase one of what’s called the "New Nicollet."

For the past several years, the city has solicited input from the community about what they’d like to see here.   And this spring, the council and mayor officially approved a concept plan.

"It’s been a long road to get here and we’ve spent a lot of time to get here to make sure we get it right this time," said Linnea Graffunder-Bartels, the Senior Project Coordinator for Community Planning and Economic Development.

"The ultimate goal is to create a place that really serves the needs of people that live in the area and will come to live in the area, so lots of housing, places to get  your daily needs met.  And then places, public spaces, that are comfortable and people can relax and recreate."

Fixing a mistake

The backstory:

In the 1970s, the city demolished buildings around Lake and Nicollet with the hopes of redeveloping and revitalizing the area, ultimately approving the construction of K-Mart.

But, the city says the impacts on the area were opposite of what they hoped, with the interruption of Nicollet Avenue by the big box store disconnecting parts of the city and becoming a barrier to further revitalization.

Already in 1989, the city formed a task force to begin exploring reconnecting Nicollet Avenue, but that talk lagged for decades.

In 2020, the city finally took control of the site, started planning discussions with the community a couple of years later and finally demolished the vacant buildings in the fall of 2023.

Construction still years away

What happens now:

The concept for the area is a mix of hundreds of units of housing, both apartments and townhomes, as well as street level retail and public park space. The plan also includes a major grocery store.

The first phase that the city’s opened for bids is the southeast quadrant, which focuses on subsidized and affordable rent apartments.

Bids are due in January, with the city approving a developer later in 2026.

But don’t expect construction to begin for a few more years.

"There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes from when we get our development proposal to when shovels start digging in the ground," said Graffunder-Bartels.

"That planning work is essential to having a good outcome on the site. And also, we’ll continue to engage community members as we move forward in this process, and that also takes time."