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Out of the Ashes, an Urban Gem
West River Commons, Minneapolis
Situation/Summary of Issues
Building urban infill mixed-use developments is often an uphill battle for developers. For the Lander Group, developing West River Commons in Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood was no exception. On top of strict zoning regulations, neighborhood anxiety and tricky market conditions, a devastating fire blazed through the nearly completed building in June 2003.
Out of the ashes, however, emerged an urban gem. Looking over the Mississippi River, West River Commons is a mixed-use project consisting of 53 rental apartments, three for-sale townhomes and four retail tenants on East Lake Street. Through its pedestrian-friendly design, the project connects with the surrounding neighborhood. A public plaza serves as a community gathering spot (ULI Development Case Study).
Goals
- Mixed use development overlooking the Mississippi River with residential and neighborhood retail (anchored by restaurant and coffee house)
- Urban infill to take advantage of existing infrastructure, particularly access to the West River Parkway trails and Lake Street as a commercial corridor
- Increase density while blending in with surrounding residential neighborhood.
- Provide a mix of high end and affordable housing (20 percent of which are affordable to those at 50 percent of the median income)
Solution
- Design solutions helped building blend in with surrounding area, helping to ease neighborhood anxiety:
- Ground floor retail with store front windows on Lake Street
- Parking hidden underground and in the lot’s interior
- Beautiful human scaled public plaza with arcade and public art facing riverfront
- Walk-up condos that bring the development down to the surrounding residential scale
- Landscaping elements
- Work with Minneapolis Planning Department to obtain variances and conditional use permits required to build the type of pedestrian oriented development. The development team was able to make the case that this type of development fit with the intent of planning and zoning documents for the area.
Zoning difficulties (2004 Planning Commission Report)
- Conditional Use Permit—existing zone didn’t allow commercial
- Variances to reduce setback requirements. Needed to bring building walls up to the street/sidewalk
- Variances to reduce the number of required parking space
- The Lander Group held 24 public meetings with nearby residents and hosted an interactive website so neighbors could register ideas online and submit comments.
Progress
West River Commons has become an anchor in the Longfellow neighborhood.
Project Features
- Underground parking: 74 stalls
- Surface parking: 37 stalls
- Retail: 7,925 square feet (4.7 per 1,000)
- 53 apartment units
- Three Townhomes
- Restaurants (Longfellow Grill, Papa Murphy’s), coffee shop: (Dunn Bros Coffee), services (Clean and Press Dry Cleaners)
- Parking hidden
- Public plaza
After being completed in 2004, all units were leased up within six months—a great success from a developer’s perspective.
Lander Group won “Best in American Living” award from Professional Builder magazine in 2006 for Smart Urban Growth.
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