INFORMATION #1 EDSR 04-14-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~~~®iZM~`tOC~r Page 1 of 3 Silver Lake Village Achieving a Collective Subconscious [ By Tom Moran ] When the Minneapolis/St. Paul suburb of St. Anthony was trying to figure out what to do with a 43-year-old enclosed shopping center once celebrated as the center of the community but now nearly empty, they zeroed in on a master developer whose sales pitch included phrases like "collective subconscious" and "a good place to hang out." Replacing a Community Icon Apache Plaza, the 530,000-square-foot, cosmetically unappealing mall that St. Anthony was in need of replacing, was the second enclosed mall built in Minnesota and one of the first in the country. Back in 1960, the mall's architecture was considered bold and its common area was bigger than a football field. The mall was considered safe enough for families to drop off their kids to hang out for the day and enjoy regularly planned activities. silver Lake village ~~Main Over the years the landmark mall began to face competition from larger street" has the feel and look regional malls; and in 1984, a tornado ripped into the south end of the mall of a traditional small town commercial environment. and caused it to close for several months. First, F.W. Woolworth declared bankruptcy in 1991, and then J.C. Penney, the last of the original tenants, left Apache for a bigger and sexier mall just a couple miles down the road. ~~It was a bittersweet time for tens of thousands of people all over Minnesota who had an emotional attachment to Apache Plaza," said the mayor. It was in this environment that the City of St. Anthony began to explore life after Apache Mall. Making the Case for Community Involvement A task force of stakeholders from the northwest quadrant of greater metropolitan St. Paul and Minneapolis was formed to come up with a plan. John Shardlow, a community planner from the consulting firm of Dahlgren, Shardlow & Uban, guided the effort to encourage community participation. The exercise resulted in a plethora of ideas ranging from refurbishing the existing mall, to reclaiming the 60 acres and turning the mall site into various combinations of green space, housing, office and retail. Shardlow recalled that as with most early planning endeavors of any size in any community, the early, and only consensus was only that °something" needed to be done. That "something" should, like Apache Plaza in the 1960s, be cutting edge, enhance the town's ability to attract new residents, provide new jobs, additional tax base, include a community gathering place, and finally-not include "big box" retailers. In 2000, with the community's input firmly in hand, the St. Anthony City Council issued a Request for Proposals. Among the proposals submitted were those from giant development firms such as Opus and Centex. However, one from a much smaller local developer - Pratt Ordway Properties -- caught the eye of the city council. Four years later, the mayor recalled how Pratt's ~~David" felled the ~~Goliaths" and became the master developer of Silver Lake Village: °Len Pratt listened to us, absorbing and respecting our vision; and built a solid team of partners," noted the mayor. Reflecting on the process, Pratt noted, '~We had our challenges, not the least of which was the big box question." .~..,.. g ,~~ 1 ~.: ;~ i~ . S ~ F ~ .+ ~:;r_ - ,, r ~,~~ ~. , ^? 5 Salo Park with its large amphitheater is a perfect setting for neighborhood gatherings, concerts or a summer stroll. Solving the Big Box Dilemma Addressing the big box issue was indeed a challenge. In developing his team, Pratt kept a razor sharp focus on the mission given him by the City of St. Anthony: Build something as progressive in the new millennium as Apache was in the old; http://www.naiop.org/developmentmag/specialsections/200801 c.cfm 4/4/2008