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927 E. Lake St., Wayzata
Type: Housing, office, retail, hotel
Housing units: 450
Total area: 632,500 square feet
Developer: Wayzata Bay Redevelopment Co.
Details: The third time may be the charm for of one of the most promising, and the most challenging, mixed-use real estate projects in the metro region.
Wayzata Bay Redevelopment Co., a subsidiary of Presbyterian Homes and Services, is proposing a $150 million development combining offices, retail, conventional housing, senior housing and a hotel. The plan calls for 30,000 square feet of offices, 130,000 square feet of retail, and 450 units mixing conventional and senior housing. The one-story 1960s strip mall would give way to a cluster of buildings ranging from two to five stories.
The developers are just now heading to City Hall with a first round of sketches, but they have spent months lobbying the "real" power structure -- the residents who have objected to two previous (and smaller-scale) projects.
"I think we're feeling very positive about the process, because the community has been supportive all along the way," said Ed Briesemeister, managing director of the project.
He says he understands the concerns of residents in this upscale Lake Minnetonka shoreline town of 4,000.
"This is a pretty radical plan," he says. "This tract of land is such a large portion of downtown Wayzata that it makes this a very large impact on the community."
Few in town would argue that the worn and outdated Wayzata Bay Shopping Center should remain as is, not even the four friends who founded it and owned it for many years. So far, however, two redevelopment plans in the last five years have stalled, despite the skills of players with deep pockets and strong track records.
In 2004, Madison Marquette proposed a $50 million plan. A year ago, United Properties walked away from the site after a year of trying when its $100 million mixed-use plan ran into poor soil tests and city demands to decrease the height and density of new construction, all of which threatened to kill its financial viability. Local retailers also got hit with sticker shock over the higher lease rates involved in the new spaces.
UP's partners in that attempt, shopping center owners John Berg, Gordy Engel and Ray Mithun Jr., quickly regrouped, realizing that while that plan didn't work, the land would draw more interest. And it did.
The site now holds a total of 632,500 square feet, now dominated by a vast surface parking area and the one-story mall. The new plan reduces streets and parking areas from 10 acres to just 1.75 acres, creating lots of green spaces, pedestrian walkways and far more trees than the broad swath of asphalt there now.
The retail component is designed to enhance Wayzata's efforts to become a destination location. That's important because the local population isn't enough to sustain national retailers, and downtown Wayzata isn't along any major traffic corridors.
ANNE BRETTS
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