A lot of work has been done on Upper Harbor Terminal (UHT) on the west side of the Mississippi River to convert it from an eyesore to a liveable, amenity-filled neighborhood. There’s a lot more work to come.
A late-afternoon meeting on Thursday, May 2 at the Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC) in North Minneapolis drew more than a hundred people. The meeting also brought out stakeholders in the project, including the City of Minneapolis, executives of United Properties and other entities making proposals for participation in the development.
Acting as emcees for the meeting were James Trice, CEO of Public Policy Project, a civic engagement, leadership development consultant and training company, and DeVon Nolen, a manager at West Broadway Business and Area Coalition.
Eric Hansen, director of the city’s department of Community Planning & Economic Development (CPED), told the audience Minneapolis has owned the UHT site for “a couple of generations,” and that the shutdown of the terminal following the Upper St. Anthony Lock closure in 2016 gave the City an opportunity to reconnect the river to the community above St. Anthony Falls.
The terminal once served as an industrial shipping center. Barges brought upriver would dock at the terminal, to be filled with coal, gravel or road salt and floated to destinations downstream.
Hanson said that it was important to note that the development of the site is largely for the benefit of North Side residents, although Northeast residents may be affected by sound coming from a proposed amphitheater along the river. He added that over the past 15 years, the planning committees have been holding meetings, and have gone “from a concept plan that was really basic to a coordinated plan that was centered around outcomes.”
Who owns the land?
Hansen responded to other queries about land ownership: “The Park Board gets 20 acres of the land. The remainder of the land outside of the park is going to be owned by the city in some way, shape or form.” He added that the city will lease the remaining land and that the public sector will have a “relationship” with developers of the properties.
Hilary Holmes, CPED’s project site manager, recounted the work that has been done on advancing the project from 2015 to the present, including the 2021 City Council approval and Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s approval of the regional park plan on the site the same year.
Since then, a number of infrastructure improvements have been made within the site, which encompasses a mile of riverfront land. These improvements will support safe and accessible ways to get people across the freeway, and then down into the site, including construction of a new segment of parkway on West River Road. The new segment will eventually connect to the Minneapolis Grand Rounds.
She noted there has been work to the water mains and Xcel Energy has relocated high transmission power lines over the site. Holmes also noted that last fall the city transferred ownership of the park parcel to MPRB.
United Properties’ Senior Development Manager Tom Strohm said the current plan was the culmination of 2,000 survey responses, 150 community meetings and “a ton of work from everybody.”
He reiterated that all of the land will be publicly owned either by the park board or the city, but all private development will happen on city property, and all that ground lease revenue will go into a community fund controlled by the city. When the project is fully built out, several hundred thousand dollars per year for 99 years will go to a fund that the City Council will direct back into the community in various ways.
More affordable housing wanted
As to housing, Strohm said “both of the planned housing projects are intended to be a third, a third, a third – so a third of the units at 30%, a third at 30 to 50% and a third and 60% of monthly income for rent payments.”
Three members of the management of InnerCity Tennis, a non-profit group that promotes youth athletic programs spoke about the group’s interest in a place in the UHT project. Executive Director John Wheaton said, “We’ve been exploring this to build or be involved with an indoor facility in North Minneapolis. So we’ve been looking for any opportunities that might come and we were honored to be invited by United Properties last year to explore this as well. But no decisions have been made.”
The extended presentation drew a couple of complaints from audience members that affordable housing should be more of a priority than athletics. Bill English, former president of the Minneapolis Urban League Board of Directors, noted that the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA), refused to give Minneapolis any affordable housing money, saying, “for affordable housing not to be funded to the most marginalized, underinvested community in the state is unacceptable.”
The UHT Coordinated Plan, published in 2021, calls for 245 affordable rental units and 32 for-sale townhomes.
What’s next
The Park Board will begin construction on its new 20-acre riverfront park this spring, including restoring native habitat and providing river access for fishing. A large picnic area is planned, meeting the desires of Black, Indigenous, Southeast Asian and Latino members of the community.
Holmes said United Properties, the master developer of the site, is lining up financing for the project. “They are still assembling financing for the first residential development (Parcel 6A) and applying for another round of funding this year,” she wrote in an email to the Northeaster. The “earliest they would break ground would be 2025.”
Construction on the 7,000-10,000-seat Community Performing Arts Center (CPAC), which will be managed by First Avenue, is set to begin this summer. Audiences will watch performances from a 350-ft. x 270-ft.-wide space that will slope up by about 25 feet. There will be a lawn area, a terraced seating area and a flat standing area. In between the sloped area and the terraced seating there will be two 62-ft. spot-towers used for lighting and two delay speaker towers with lighting. The stage will be 100 feet wide by 67 feet tall by 60 feet deep.
CPAC expects to handle 45 ticketed events each year between the months of May and October from 7 to 10 p.m. Additional non-ticketed community events will also be held at the venue year-round.
Plans for the Upper Harbor Terminal Project include a variety of uses for the 20-acre site. (City of Minneapolis)