Author Archives: Dan Peterson

Ahh, sunny spring in Minnesota. Time to take the long way. As I did from my weekly pilgrimage from the bluffs of the Minnesota River northward, I took notice of the continued progression (and in some cases regression?) of the development landscape.

France Avenue offers a sampling of it all.

Starting with Normandale Community College in Bloomington, the old “high school with ashtrays” has really grown in curriculum and square footage along with the interest for more higher learning. There is no doubt education was/is good commercial development business.

Crossing 494, I come upon the wrecking ball at Centennial Lakes Plaza tearing down a structure built as recently as 1989 to make way for the new Whole Foods. I mean, come-on, could we not use our heads a bit more to come up with an adaptive reuse strategy before we scraped the site? There are buildings three times as old and as ugly across the street. For the time being, the development party has mostly turned its back on the that side of the street. I guess to me this seemed short sighted and I expected more from Whole Foods and Edina. For what its worth, if they had considered all the adaptive strategies and they were deemed not feasible,  my apologies. It will be a sad day when they tear down the Macy’s (Dayton’s) Home Store down the street  for a short term endeavor or whatever development wave is breaking on the beach.

All is well and good with Leisure Lane, Tavern on France, Galleria and all the other main drag sites that have found development or redevelopment love. Or is it? Looking closer at the Container Store development, the strip center looks a little forced. The future may prove it to be smart infill but maybe there is a reason there wasn’t retail beyond an uncompetitive movie theater there before. The development track of bringing the residents closer to the shops like the Galleria condos, Westin and apartments on York seems to make more sense. Whatever phase of development thinking, this part of France is definitely the main thoroughfare of the new retail /mixed development that has grown around and now beyond the old lady with too many face lifts, Southdale.

Point of France corner marks what I call France’s symbolic version of Edina’s demographic turn. POF was the first big condo tower and now is showing its age. So are the residents of Edina. Fittingly, the Southdale medical area around Crosstown has developed to suit the surroundings. Like all medical facilities, Fairview has no shortage of customers and funds. Somehow the density of buildings fit in an area not easily ready to accommodate. Both old and new structures jam into a spot like a swollen foot in an orthopedic shoe yet function with design efficiency and functional ingress/egress with each addition.

Crossing Crosstown, I enter into the lot and block version of Edina. Guided by grids and Minneapolis echoes, France is tamed into being more sensible, at least until 50th. However, as you approach the holy grail of urban shopping you are confronted with modified residential living now more adapted toward affluent clustering. Density is less but the Edina side of France wins out over Minneapolis for the new developments. Hitting the commercial district of 50th, new mixed-use developments once the fears of some are now firmly supplanted. The residual is greater mixed-use density and more economic action. Restaurants such as Barrio, Salut and Mozza Mia and new additions for the hip looking to grow up and the grown up to try to stay hip. Fare thee well Pearsons.

Jumping down to 44th, a sense of more grounding comes over me as I see the Linden-Hills Co-Op where the neighborhood successfully avoided the CVS wave and the Sunnyside Gardens have endured long enough for a new generation to discover gardening. Buildings last over here. Maybe because its less prized than their 50th & France big sister or its Southdale area uncle.  Local success stories, old classics and independent operators survive with minimal pretense. Whatever the case, the development gods have not penciled out too much in the way of tear-down/build-up for this end of France, and that is a good thing.

So is rolling down the windows and taking the long way in Minnesota spring.

Fickr photo creds:  Marcus Metropolis & John McNab