Ramsey still waiting at the station

Ramsey will open a veterans' clinic and an Allina clinic next year, with other medical, retail and residential buildings expected. But the Anoka County city is still waiting for a train station, viewed as key to the success of its Center of Ramsey, or "COR," development.

"The basis of this project is transit-oriented development, and today we run a bus service," Heidi Nelson, the city's director of community development, said of the COR development. "We feel a Northstar station is critical to this project."

Ramsey is the only location where transit-oriented development can occur along the Northstar commuter rail line, which runs from Minneapolis to Big Lake, Nelson said. But a Ramsey station is expected to cost $12 million to $14 million, and the city can fund no more than one-third of the project, said Kurt Ulrich, city administrator.

The remainder would likely come from a combination of federal, state and county funding. But Anoka County Commissioner Dan Erhart, head of the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority, has said that while he supports a Ramsey station his priority is a second station in Coon Rapids, near Foley Boulevard -- a station that could serve as a hub for a proposed passenger rail line from Minneapolis to Duluth.

So, as Ramsey prepares to celebrate Monday's groundbreaking for a veterans' clinic that it recently won after a long, hotly contested battle with Elk River, the city is now trying to position itself for funding that would include an interchange on Armstrong Boulevard and Hwy. 10 along with a rail station.

Rebranding effort

The station not only would encourage more business, Ulrich said, but it could further distance the city from the memory of the Town Center, the troubled 322-acre mixed development project renamed COR this past summer.

Mismanagement, a defaulted loan and federal indictments against three bankers charged with money laundering and fraud became the legacy of the $1.3 billion Town Center project.

Last year, the city purchased 150 acres of the 322-acre site. Redrawn boundaries have expanded the COR area to include more than 400 acres.

An Acapulco Restaurant and an amphitheater opened in recent months. The 30,000-square-foot Allina clinic is expected to open by late summer, and the community-based outpatient Veterans Administration clinic for the northwestern suburbs is expected to open next fall. Apartment buildings could follow.

Could the next stop be a rail station?

"To the Department of Veterans Affairs, this rail station was important," Nelson said.

"We have plans completed," Nelson said. "The final design is done. At this point, it's securing the easement for Burlington Northern and securing a funding package.

"A rail station continues to be our top priority."