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REJournals.com - In downtown Anoka, the Rum River gets its due MlttiiF~Oti REAI ESTATE J~i~RNAE ^~ Friday June O1 2007 In downtown Anoka, the Rum River gets its due City's historic North Central Business District is attracting new urban loft and senior housing along the Rum. Don ]acobson Editor The city of Anoka is expecting big things from its Historic Rum River District, where it hopes to establish a core of new housing and retail to capitalize on its downtown's proximity to the meandering waterway. Its grain- and saw-milling roots on the Rum River go back as far as any Minnesota towns' origins do. The city has partnered with Rottlund Homes and its David Bernard Builders division to plan afour-part mixed-use project on a key downtown block bounded by Second Avenue on the north, Harrison Street on the east and Jackson Street on the west. It's just south of a new riverfront park being developed by the city, and abuts Anoka's City Hall. The centerpiece of the project - a proposed four-story, 69-unit "urban loft" building with 25,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor -will be discussed by the Anoka Planning Commission this month. Already approved are the first two parts of the projects, a pair of 52-unit senior housing condominiums, which are set to break ground sometime this year. The urban loft building, however, would be the Historic Rum River District's defining structure. It would anchor the block and provide a focus to the housing part of the city's larger effort to revitalize its central core, known as the North Central Business District. The city is pinning a lot of its hopes on the Rottlund project as it attempts to turn its historic riverfront into an asset, much as Minneapolis has with its Mississippi frontage. "This is our own historic mill district," says Anoka Community Development Director Robert Kirchner. "We had the Pillsbury and Washburn-Crosby flour mills, too, just they did in Minneapolis. And we also had the Washburn Saw Mill from the 1870's along the Rum River. The footings are still in the ground. Our first dam was in 1853, one of the very first in Minnesota." Indeed, work on the new riverfront park last year yielded some very exciting archeological results. The Washburn Saw Mill ruins were discovered by work crews laying sewer line, and now Anoka city officials believe the remains could provide the basis for a viable tourist attraction. The city is deciding whether it should attempt to get National Historic Register designation for the site. The Rottlund housing proposal is the next step in the process after the city completed a major project in the December -anew 265-stall, $6.3 million parking ramp on Jackson Street. The ramp was constructed using tax increment financing and was designed specifically by Miller Dunwiddie Architecture to blend into an 1880's historic district, with a plaza area that can be used for many different types of special outdoor events. Now, with the ramp done, the housing element can proceed. "(Rottlund) wants to get approvals on the loft building so they can start marketing that as well as their senior housing," says Kirchner. "There they need only 10 more sales to start the first building. Depending on that, they may start construction in fall. "With the urban loft building, it's right next to City Hall. It took a little planning to sort out the boundary between City Hall and the new building, which will be Page 1 of 2 May. 31, 2007 • 10:49 AM Welcome, Catherine Signout Ill Women Reel ~s~e <o.,., 4 _~ +, ~, a~ ~,w» . ,._ http://www.mrej.com/story.cfm?Market=MN&StoryID=14947 5/31/2007 ~taK~ your ~~~~.~7