Minneapolis' upper riverfront redevelopment lags

Fifteen years ago, the redevelopment plan for the upper Mississippi River waterfront in Minneapolis looked heady and ambitious.

The plan envisioned a ribbon of scenic parks rimmed by green industries and thriving areas of attractive, urban housing.

Now, even the initial items in the plan remain mostly unfinished.

The slow pace highlights the struggle to redevelop a fledgling area of Minneapolis after a deep recession reshuffled city priorities and strained resources. Now neighbors and advocates are hoping for renewed momentum in the area, but some are uneasy about the way the plan is evolving.

"The pace seems excruciatingly slow," said Linda Mack, chairwoman of the Minneapolis Riverfront Partnership, comparing the upper river to the multi-decade development of the city's downtown riverfront. "These things take a lot of time, and they take a lot of money, and there are a lot of other priorities."

The most visible improvement was extending recreational trails north on the west bank from the Plymouth Avenue Bridge. Planning is starting in September to route a matching set of trails on the river's east bank. Park officials are also trying to raise money for a park in the area featuring a beach and a re-created island for wildlife habitat.

That is still a long way from where advocates want the area to be.

So far, that has not happened.

Instead, there is a nonprofit advocacy group, but it lacks the financial muscle to buy crucial parcels.

Mack said part of the problem is that the upper river is not often familiar to people elsewhere in the city. "For many people, the river ends at St. Anthony Falls," she said.

An overarching goal of the project was to better connect the neighborhood to the river.

One project that was supposed to do that was a new North Side connection to the river parkway via 26th Avenue N. But that has been stymied by the Park Board's inability to buy key land, which means the connection is now blocked by a new condo development.

There has been no progress on a recommendation that the public buy out one of the companies, a riverfront cement elevator. Public ownership would eliminate the only user of a railroad spur, potentially making it easier to buy a key rail bridge where park officials want to connect their east and west bank pedestrian and bike trails.

Other projects are falling short of projections. Housing envisioned at a Grain Belt brewhouse complex is just now being built and the number of units so far is well short of initial expectations.

Many of these early initiatives were considered relatively inexpensive jump-starter projects to prime the redevelopment of the industrial sections of the river.

The plan's larger vision of park-lined riverbanks all the way to the Camden Bridge, plus new infill housing and light industry, were expected to take decades and hundreds of millions of dollars.

City officials are now retooling the plan, leaving some neighbors increasingly uneasy.

The change reflects broader sentiment in area neighborhoods and also a more detailed analysis of the potential housing market, according to city planner Haila Maze, who oversaw the revised plan.

Some riverfront advocates said that studies conducted during a housing slump paint an incomplete picture and should not dull the interest in future housing.

"There's only oneriver; putting industry there precludes other activity," said Irene Jones, a riverfront advocate for nonprofit Friends of the Mississippi River.

One important redevelopment spot is the city's Upper Harbor Terminal, where commodities have been shipped since the 1960s. The 48-acre depot closes as a port at the end of the year.

The Park Board and city development officials are still negotiating the boundaries between its park and business park zones.

The Park Board has accumulated much of the land needed for the project, and a large riverfront employer, Graco, said it is willing to negotiate an easement for trails on its factory complex.

The remainder of the old Scherer Bros. lumberyard site will become a park designed to give Northeast residents better river access. That includes a gravel beach, and a park building that could rent kayaks or paddleboards, said Bruce Chamberlain, an assistant park superintendent.

A highlight of the planned park is expected to be the re-creation of an island intended to be a stopover for migratory birds and a place where park users can watch them.

The Park Board hopes to negotiate an easement with Lafarge, the cement elevator operator, to put trails on the property's river edge to link with a planned overlook at the river end of the city's revamped 26th Avenue greenway. But extending the parkway upriver would require buying the Lafarge site.

According to Maze, the chance for relocating those heavy industries is hurt by the city's lack of suitable alternative sites. Some company leaders are adamant about keeping their current sites, and others say that the city can't afford to buy them out. But some hope that closing the locks at Upper St. Anthony Falls will cause some industries to rethink their locations, or at least free some of their riverside frontage for trails.

Maze said the city needs to plan realistically.

"We don't want to put forward a vision that we don't effectively have a path to," Maze said.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438

Twitter: @brandtstrib