Good news--this morning it was announced that Cub Foods is pulling out of the proposed Sherman Associates development at 23/24th and Central. What many of us has suspected turned out to be true: Without a large public subsidy the project is not feasible. Faced with significant neighborhood opposition, and given the city's current financial status, the MCDA was unlikely to provide the minimum subsidy required.
Sherman Associates, however, still wants to proceed with a redevelopment proposal for the US Bank site. Details are not yet available but their new proposal will only be for the US Bank site, include a mix of housing and retail, and not require the acquisition of the housing units and businesses on the southern end of the block. There is at least one other serious proposal for the site as well. Both proposals will be presented at the January 9th Holland neighborhood meeting and at a later meeting of the Windom Park neighborhood group. Despite the Cub pull-out, the Northeast CDC apparently still intends to proceed with their duplicative and wasteful public meetings regarding the bank site redevelopment. The rationale for this is unclear. The whole reason the CDC gave for their involvement was that a development the size of a Cub Foods was an issue affecting the whole area, not just one neighborhood. But the revised development proposal will be much smaller--mainly housing and smaller commercial. What real "value added" is the NECDC providing? None that I can see, but it will be interesting to see what kind of spin the NECDC puts on this now. Bruce Shoemaker Holland Neighborhood _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
