Twin Cities suburb turns forgotten Mississippi riverfront into a key attraction

Champlin hasn’t always embraced its position as a river town.

Dilapidated, small apartment buildings lined the northwest suburb’s Mississippi riverfront, which hadn’t welcomed any significant development since the 1980s. Mayor Ryan Sabas said the river mostly felt like an obstacle as drivers fought congestion to get across the bridge.

But now, Champlin has awakened its riverfront. Masses come out for shows at a new outdoor amphitheater. An event center hosts weddings and conferences overlooking the water. Hundreds of residents have moved into upscale apartments. Boaters dock, then grab some ice cream or catch a concert.

“Champlin finally has something that draws people from outside the city. We really haven’t had that,” Sabas said. “The river was viewed as an obstacle. Today, people look at it as an amenity.”

The major undertaking comes as dozens of other cities across the country and in the metro have focused on turning their once forgotten — or heavily polluted — riverfronts into attractions and economic generators. The initiatives range from Minneapolis’ new concert venue on the Mississippi to Anoka’s plan to add surfing on the Rum, laced together with spruced-up parks and new trails that draw people to the waterways.

In Champlin, Mississippi Crossings, the redevelopment project that spanned 26 years and five mayors, is nearly complete. The final piece, a restaurant with a sprawling patio, is slated to open before the end of the year.

Next, the city is studying how it might redevelop the nearby area west of Hwy. 169, which includes its longest-lasting business, the Sinclair station, as well as other older commercial buildings and homes. Officials are asking property owners to consider how to best attract new development without wiping out the history.

Grabow said her town, which has held steady at about 23,000 residents over the past decade, “is kind of a slept-on, up-and-coming community.

“While we kind of want to gatekeep it so traffic doesn’t get crazier, it’s cool that people who don’t live up here are now seeing the cool things that have been going on the past few years.”

City leaders in the late 1990s started reimagining the 160 acres south of the Anoka-Champlin bridge, with the vision of opening up the riverfront.

The area once boasted a lively business district to serve steamboats that landed there as early as the mid-1800s. But the city isn’t trying to recreate that.

“Champlin is in between two great historic downtowns in Anoka and Osseo,” Sabas said. “We realized we don’t need to create something that’s already surrounding us. What we needed was a community gathering space.”

Major work began with the more than $18 million cleanup and restoration of Elm Creek and its dam, as well as Mill Pond, which feed into the Mississippi from the southwest. The city made the water more navigable for boats and canoes and added fishing areas and public docks along the riverfront.

“It’s one of those things where it’s a jewel that not many people know about,” Schulte said of the stretch of the Mississippi River from north of the Coon Rapids Dam to Champlin’s bridge with Anoka.

A $12 million project reconstructed Hwy. 169. And the first private development came in the form of a $30 million, 85-unit senior cooperative.

The city later named Greco as the developer of 12 central acres within a tax increment financing district. The construction of a $50 million, 215-unit apartment building allowed the city to add parking and utilities needed to build out the rest of the project.

In 2022, the city built an event center, which fits parties of 150, and an outdoor performing area, where bands play at the amphitheater every Thursday during the summer. The shows, with food trucks parked on the grounds, have brought as many as 2,000 people out, Schulte said.

“It’s become the heart of the city,” Bannerman said.

Grabow, who lives more than a mile from the Crossings area, said she’s enjoyed boating on the river and having a place to dock, get food and listen to music.

“It’s gone from a flat, dirt field to a really happening area with a lot of things to go do,” she said.

Several residents said they support the city’s redevelopment, but congested traffic remains a major pain. Hennepin County is studying how to improve Dayton River Road. And Champlin city leaders said they’ll continue to advocate for another bridge crossing.

“Traffic is the issue right now, both on Hwy. 169 and Dayton Road,” resident Pat Hagerty said. “It’s constant.”

Jim Merkl, who ran the full-service gas station for nearly 50 years, died in January. Now the family is deciding whether to sell. Several residents have pushed to preserve the historic building and its costumed dinosaur.

Sabas said the city already owns some parcels in the area and will ask property owners if they have any interest in moving.

The mayor said he feels the city could use some owner-occupied condos, a higher-end boutique hotel and more restaurants.