The City of Minneapolis is inching closer to a plan for the former Kmart site on Nicollet Avenue.
City Planner Adrian Bockheim says they're pleased with the public engagement so far, and more than 500 people showed up at an open house last week to give their input on three design concepts that would relink Nicollet Avenue with Lake Street.
"A lot of folks were really just excited about all three concepts because they all bring in great space, recreation and gathering on the site which currently has none," says Bockheim. "But I think we're continuing to hear a lot of things we heard before, about just wanting trees and shade and places to sit."
All of the designs incorporate green space, recreation, and gathering space on the site. Senior Transportation Planner Kelsey Fogt says they will use the feedback from the community to fit it into the city's goals for the area.
"We've got some work to do to bring all those pieces together and take the info that we're getting from the community so far and compare those with our project goals, our city policies, and come up to a final recommendation for the street and for the public space framework," says Fogt.
The public can weigh in on all three designs online through November 14. Those responses, along with all other input gathered so far, will be presented to the Mayor and City Council early in 2024. Street construction is expected to start in 2025, but the finished products is a long ways off, with the surrounding development starting in 2027 at the earliest.
The store cut off the famous "Eat Street" section of Nicollet from the rest of the avenue from 29th to Lake Street.
In 1977, Kmart and SuperValu built new stores with large surface parking lots on 10 acres at Lake St. and Nicollet Ave. It created a barrier that affected the community, local businesses, and the landscape of south Minneapolis and it also created an uproar in the process. The city eventually repurchased the SuperValu site in 2015, and also purchased and Kmart site in 2017 though the store continued to operate until June of 2020.
Kmart was in the heart of the George Floyd riots in May of that year and was damaged.