In the News

Graco takes center stage as Labor Secretary Perez talks up training effort
U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez visited the Minneapolis factory floor of Graco Inc. and Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) Tuesday to praise the burgeoning collaboration between the worker-hungry manufacturer and area community colleges that are supplying interns and technical-degree graduates in jobs that start at up to $20 an hour. (Star Tribune, 5/26/2015)
Mortenson eyes key parcel next to Surdyk's in northeast Minneapolis for mixed-use project
M.A. Mortenson is looking to develop a residential and retail project on a key parcel along East Hennepin Avenue in the heart of northeast Minneapolis' bustling commercial district, the developer confirmed Tuesday. (Star Tribune, 5/26/2015)
New Meeker Island Dog Park opens
Just over the border in St. Paul, a new dog park opened near the ruins of the former Meeker Island Dam. (MinnPost, 5/15/2015)
DNR Seeks Public Input on Pillsbury A-Mill Artist Lofts Hydroelectric Project
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wants feedback on the Pillsbury A-Mill Artist Lofts hydroelectric project, on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. (KSTP, 5/11/2015)
Business look for state help when Mississippi lock closes in June
"If we're going to do a public good, it shouldn't be borne by two individual companies," said Jack Perry, who represents two companies that use the lock to transport their product. Perry's clients, Northern Metal Recycling and Aggregate Industries, sit along the Mississippi River in northeast Minneapolis. One transports metal, the other sand. His clients' entire business depends on transporting their product through that lock system, he said. (KARE 11, 5/8/2015)
It's intended, after all, not simply as a destination but as a connector to the Mississippi River and to other green spaces downtown, including the new Waterworks and Gateway projects. (Star Tribune, 5/4/2015)
University of Minnesota dedicates Bruininks Hall
A special ceremony took place Friday to dedicate Robert H. Bruininks Hall at the University of Minnesota. (Star Tribune, 5/1/2015)
Oil trains' dangers fuel debate at Minn. Capitol
The Canadian Pacific and BNSF railroad tracks have run through the Twin Cities for years, but it's a recent cargo that's bringing them new scrutiny: North Dakota oil. (InForum, 4/30/2015)
Sometimes it helps to say no. That's what the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board did in November when it balked at paying the city $5 per square foot to buy a tiny piece of land with an electrical transmission line hovering over it. (Star Tribune, 4/2/2015)
Caught between the Mississippi River on the east and the human-made river that is I-94 on the west, you find a narrow isthmus of factories, warehouses, wholesalers, industrial facilities and small houses in the parts of North Minneapolis between Plymouth and Dowling. (MinnPost, 4/1/2015)
The barges represent one of the first commercial loads through Minneapolis in a barge shipping season that opened Sunday at the twin locks of St. Anthony Falls. (Star Tribune, 4/1/2015)
Minneapolis park officials have told representatives of Graco Minnesota Inc. that they would consider allowing construction of a corporate building on leased land at a neighboring park site in northeast Minneapolis — assuming the company grants a long-sought easement for paths. (Star Tribune, 4/1/2015)
Developer releases updated plans for Superior Plating tower
The final look of the Superior Plating site in Northeast Minneapolis is taking shape. (Downtown Journal, 3/30/2015)
The downtown Minneapolis complex that houses the Mill City Museum will undergo analysis to determine whether its historic buildings are in need of repair to ensure the facility endures for decades. (Star Tribune, 3/29/2015/2015)
As longtime residents of the historic Southeast/Northeast area of Minneapolis that now contains the controversial development site that includes the new proposal for housing on the Nye?s site on the east bank of the Mississippi, my husband and I have seen many changes. When we got married almost 65 years ago and settled in southeast Minneapolis, the riverfront was a decaying industrial area, unsightly and crime-prone on both sides of the river. Main Street was not a street one used at night. (Star Tribune, 3/29/2015)
Symphony Hydro has reapplied for federal permission to generate hydroelectricity in the St. Anthony Falls lock after a federal regulator last month denied its initial try. (Star Tribune, 3/27/2015/2015)
Through photographs, newspaper clippings, maps and surveys, visitors can "journey" down the 79 steps from the bluffs to the flats, and see how a community in the middle of the city could simultaneously be at the margins of the river, of society, and of historical memory. (Mill Ciy Times, 3/27/2015/2015)
A Minneapolis City Council member has a delicious vision for the art deco wonder that is the downtown post office. (Star Tribune, 3/27/2015)
Neighborhood support for a plan to build a high-rise on the Nyeӳ Polonaise restaurant site has stalled amid growing concerns over its impact on nearby buildings. (Star Tribune, 3/26/2015)
An empathetic advocate for birds
Brandon takes such pictures for a project she calls ?Impact.? She volunteers with the National Audubon Society, which collects and records dead birds that have collided with windows of Twin Cities buildings. (Downtown Journal, 3/26/2015)
Community input wanted on West River Parkway repair
The city of Minneapolis wants the community's input on redesigning a stretch of West River Parkway in the wake of a mudslide that happened last year. (KSTP-TV, 3/26/2015)
The first towboats of the season cleared the Hastings lock Wednesday on the Mississippi River, heralding a more typical spring after unseasonably wintry weather in 2014 pushed the start of Upper Mississippi navigation into mid-April. (Star Tribune, 3/25/2015)
Long-delayed repairs to Minneapolis' 10th Avenue Bridge were at the top of the agenda Friday in a meeting between Mayor Betsy Hodges and Gov. Mark Dayton, who is preparing a bonding proposal. (Star Tribune, 3/20/2015)
20 is part of what might be called the downtown of northeast Minneapolis, the once ethnic neighborhood filled today by young professionals, artists, craft breweries, bars and restaurants. (Finance & Commerce, 3/19/2015)
State Review Board supports and pursues Prospect Park neighborhood's inclusion on National Historic Register
After a 20 year effort, Minneapolis? Prospect Park neighborhood is on its way to becoming the state?s largest historic site. The application will go to Washington, D.C., to the Department of Interior for a national review.(KSTP-TV, 3/12/2015)
Both sides have buttressed their positions as they prepare for a meeting next week to see if an impasse can be resolved involving an easement for a riverside trail over land owned by Graco Minnesota Inc. (StarTribune, 3/12/2015)
222 Hennepin, the luxury-apartment and retail complex in downtown Minneapolis that contains a Whole Foods store, is selling to Weidner Investment Services. The $109 million deal closed Tuesday afternoon, Ryan Cos. US Inc. said in a statement..(Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, 3/10/2015)
Church, preservationists oppose plans for Nye's
Schafer Richardson's proposed 32-story high-rise at Nye's would be a "complete obliteration" of the St. Anthony Falls Historic District Guidelines, says Preserve Minneapolis. Those Guidelines call for a maximum build height of four stories or up to 10 if stepped back from the street.(The Journal, 3/10/2015)
The Northeast Minneapolis Arts District topped a USA Today reader's choice competition to claim the title "Best Art District,"(Star Tribune, 3/6/2015)
What a disappointment that the Star Tribune Editorial Board took the side of corporate bullying. The editorial's call for a "compromise" is based upon Graco's unsubstantiated claim that the company was released from its promise to provide a trail easement along the Mississippi River.(Star Tribune, 3/5/2015)
More than 30 years since a foundational plan for riverfront park development launched huge changes in the St. Anthony Falls area, a new plan takes stock of what's undone, urges correcting what was done wrong and adds new ideas. (Star Tribune, 3/5/2015)
The rebuilding of a major street crossing the middle of north Minneapolis will give the North Side another major east-west link for bikers and walkers. (Star Tribune, 3/5/2015)
On May 30th, Historic Hall's Island (aka the Scherer Brothers Lumber site), will go from a flat, open, roughly-planted landscape to one of the hippest venues in town, playing host to performers Alabama Shakes and Father John Misty. (Star Tribune, 3/3/2015)
Mapping the Coldwater area, on Minneapolis' southern edge
Maps are portraits that show one view of a place. But just as people have varied pictures-- candid snapshots to formal posed portraits-- Coldwater has many maps that chart the park as it was, is, and perhaps, could be. (Mississippi River Fund, 3/2/2015)
In the next few days, city leadership and staff will be meeting with Graco senior leadership and our friends at the Park Board to work through the outstanding issues with the easement and allow the trail work to move forward. For years, our community has had the expectation that one day the trail would extend farther up the river. Now we have a chance to deliver on that vision. (Star Tribune, 3/1/2015)
It may take attorneys and a judge to resolve the dispute between the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and Graco Inc. But a far more productive use of time and taxpayer dollars would be for city leaders to forge a compromise that would reflect the integral role corporations like Graco and organizations like the Park Board play in making Minneapolis a successful city. (Star Tribune 2/26/2015)
The feds have decided that the Upper St. Anthony Lock in Minneapolis will reopen with ice-out this year until a congressionally mandated closure date of June 10. (Star Tribune 2/25/2015)
The Mill City Quarter housing development will have the first woonerf in Minneapolis, a Dutch-inspired space that welcomes people on foot and bike and low-speed motorists. It will offer a new link to the downtown riverfront where trains once connected to points upriver. (Star Tribune, 2/23/2015)
The company got what it wanted 15 years ago. Now it's time to honor its commitment for an easement. (Star Tribune, 2/22/2015)
The question of why the city apparently released Graco Minnesota Inc. from a requirement to provide a critical trail easement at its riverfront property remains unanswered a week after the controversy erupted (Star Tribune, 2/20/2015)
MPCA wants to partially remove Superior Plating site from Superfund list
The Journal reported late last month that Lennar Multifamily Communities is planning an 18-story tower and plaza development at First Avenue and University Avenue on the site. Earlier this month, Lennar put down earnest money to activate a purchase agreement with the site's owner, First And University Investor (FUI), for the development. The MPCA split the site into two units and only wishes to "delist" the unsaturated soil above the bedrock, while contaminated groundwater on site would remain on the Superfund list.
Hydropower could harness Minneapolis history to power future
A proposal would refurbish and repurpose the tunnel to provide power to the low-income apartments and artist lofts currently under construction in the historic Pillsbury A Mill. KSTP-TV descended into the depths of the building's subterranean infrastructure, which, today, sits damp, dark and dormant, but now seems destined to return to its glory days. (KSTP-TV, 2/19/2015)
Some of the art from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden will get a new home while the popular park undergoes a $10 million renovation slated to start later this year. (Pioneer Press, 2/12/2015)
Art from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden will be stored or shown at other Twin Cities museums and parks during the garden's $10 million renovation starting in June 2015. (Star Tribune, 2/12/2015)
The yearlong search is over for the Guthrie's new artistic director. Joseph Haj, 51, will succeed Joe Dowling in July 2015. (MinnPost, 2/17/2015)
Northeast Minneapolis Arts District leads in nationwide poll
Northeast Minneapolis Arts District is currently leading a pack of 20 districts, which a panel of "art experts hand-picked." (Downtown Journal, 2/12/2015)
Minneapolis park officials recommend a change of course for a hotly opposed operations facility they earlier recommended for the upper Mississippi River in northeast Minneapolis. (Star Tribune 2/16/2015)
Planning for a different future at the UHT site has been under consideration for almost two decades, with discussions dating as far back as the late 1990s when the original version of the Above the Falls Master Plan was created. (Friends of the Mississippi River, 2/16/2015)
With Riverfront Bike and Ped Trails at Stake, Graco Must Live Up to to Its Agreement
A May 31 deadline for Fed funding will be missed unless Graco lives up to its word and grants easement, quickly. (Mill City Times, 2/13/2015)
A group of mostly suburban legislators is looking to end a little-known funding stream that has sent $14.3 million from the Metropolitan Council to North Mississippi Regional Park over the past 30 years. The money has been used for land purchases, new projects and amenities at the long skinny park lying between Interstate 94 and the river in north Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center. The money comes from interest on borrowed money the Met Council is waiting to spend on new projects. (Star Tribune 2/11/2014)
The Upper St. Anthony Falls lock, which began passing ships up and down the Mississippi River in 1963, will close in June. The closing is part of an effort to keep invasive carp from spreading into Minnesota's northern waters, including lakes Itasca, Bemidji and Mille Lacs. The dams and locks along the Mississippi have been crucial to Minneapolis and St. Paul for more than 100 years. John Anfinson, superintendent of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, shared these facts about the lock's history with MPR News' Cathy Wurzer. (Minnesota Public Radio, 1/21/2015)
John Anfinson talked with Twin Cities Public Television about his new job as the superintendent of the only National Park devoted to the Mississippi River. (Twin Cities Public Television, 1/16/2015)
John Anfinson talked with Twin Cities Public Television about his new job as the superintendent of the only National Park devoted to the Mississippi River. (Twin Cities Public Television, 1/16/2015)