Developer selected for downtown Rosemount project
Rosemount's plans to revitalize its downtown area took a big step forward with the naming of Contractor Property Developers to spearhead the effort.
Finance & Commerce
April 14, 2005
By Mark Anderson
Rosemount city officials last week selected Brooklyn Park-based Contractor Property Developers Co. (CPD) to carry out an ambitious plan to revitalize a 13-block area in the city's downtown.
The Rosemount Port Authority named CPD and its partners — nonprofit developer Central Community Housing Trust, The Cunningham Group architectural firm and DTJ Design urban planning of Boulder, Colo. — to carry out a plan to add housing, expand the retail and office sectors, and redesign traffic patterns and streetscaping downtown.
City officials will begin negotiating a final development agreement with CPD by early May with a goal of beginning work on the multi-stage project by spring 2006, according to Kim Lindquist, Rosemount's community development director.
CPD has already become the busiest developer in Rosemount over the last several years, undertaking a 1,200-unit planned residential development — the Evermoor, which is almost complete — and a 600-unit redevelopment of a former glass factory and golf course site. Construction on that project, called Harmony Village, is just beginning this spring.
CPD's success on those projects boosted its standing in the selection process, in spite of the company's relative inexperience in redevelopment and commercial efforts, Lindquist said.
"They've already delivered two signature developments here, and in each of those they followed through on everything they promised," she said.
Lindquist said that the developer's partners also gave the selection panel confidence.
Minneapolis-based Central Community Housing Trust, for instance, brings extensive experience redeveloping city sites for affordable housing. CCHT started adding suburban projects to its portfolio in the last year.
"We wanted to align ourselves with people who understand how to relocate tenants and everything else that goes into redevelopment, and that's why we're working with CCHT," said Matt Alexander, director of land for CPD.
DTJ Design, which will play a role in the master design, brings considerable experience redeveloping mixed-use districts and designing new commercial and public spaces.
Alexander pointed out that CPD has also been building its own capacity in redevelopment and commercial projects recently.
After focusing for years on large, carefully planned residential villages, most of which included small retail components, CPD has completed 40 acres of retail projects in the last 1 1/2 years, including a grocery store-anchored development adjacent to its Victor Gardens residential community in Hugo.
"The reason I was brought on two years ago was to help us build up our retail and commercial presence," Alexander said. "This project is going to be a good challenge for us."
Minneapolis-based Cunningham Group's architects will design individual buildings in the project and will probably be joined by other architects, Alexander said.
Although the selection of a developer marks an important milestone in Rosemount's planned downtown renaissance, Lindquist said, the city probably will face some of its most difficult steps in the coming months.
"As we move to assemble land to make these improvements, there's a good chance that we'll end up in condemnation situations" against Rosemount citizens and business owners — a prospect the planners don't relish, she said.
The city has already acquired parcels in two small areas that probably will be the starting places for the development.
In order to provide investment sources for the project, Rosemount created tax-increment-financing districts at the Harmony Village development and on several other parcels. It has also pledged to donate some publicly owned parcels downtown to the developers.
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