Two Dakota County cities will begin jump-starting revitalization efforts downtown and along the waterfront after receiving an infusion of grant money from the Metropolitan Council.
Apple Valley's Village Pointe Plaza was awarded $1.15 million toward the latest phase of the Central Village development, which will be located on a 3.65-acre vacant lot near the Metro Red Line and the Apple Valley Transit Station. The money will go toward site acquisition of the mixed-use project, which will boast retail space, a natural foods co-op grocery store and 78 units of independent senior housing.
In Hastings, $980,000 was allocated to transform the historic H.D. Hudson Manufacturing Building into a destination along the Mississippi. The 100,000-square-foot project will include 56 units of housing, community events space, art space, food service and a new public riverfront landing connecting a nearby regional trail to a future transit corridor.
The Met Council funded eight projects for 2015. Grants were recommended by the Livable Communities Advisory Committee, which is chaired by Apple Valley Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland.
The Village Pointe Plaza project helps answer a question city leaders have been pondering for months: How can the suburb accommodate an aging population?
The share of Dakota County's population consisting of seniors, once just 5 percent, is about to soar close to 30 percent, projections show. And aging is happening faster in Apple Valley than in the county as a whole.
Efforts to address that demographic change are being focused in Central Village — a 60-acre stretch of townhouses, office space, shops and restaurants — because it's the city's major hub of activity.
Minnesota-based Ecumen and cooperative housing developer Lifestyle Communities LLC, joined to form OneTwoOne Development, the partnership behind Village Pointe Plaza. The complex would allow active residents age 55 and older to live independently in a communal setting, said Hamann-Roland.