Highland Bridge: Ford Site Redevelopment

[twincitizen]

No news, but I just wanted to say again how unbelievably well-designed and executed the public parks and quasi-public spaces at Highland Bridge are. In a world where there's a lot of things worth complaining about, and whole lot of other mostly-fine things we complain about anyways, the public spaces and general layout of Highland Bridge feel pretty close to perfect. Everyone involved in the design of these spaces should be winning all the national awards.

If you haven't stopped by yet, get out there and walk around. Even with the housing development less than half completed, the park areas are buzzing on a nice day. People (in addition to urban planning nerds like us) are driving from elsewhere to walk around the central water feature and use the skate park, dog park, playgrounds, etc.

I can't even come up with a minor quibble like "they should have put X here instead of Y over there." I guess I'll reserve a sliver of final judgement until those couple blocks of development along Ford (west of Lunds) are completed to see how well they handle the connection between Ford and the central water feature. Whatever building goes in west of Lunds is also supposed to include the only other retail space in Highland Bridge, so the design of that building should be scrutinized.

[Cat385]

The retail space mirrors that across from it at Block 7.

[twincitizen]

This Strib article includes a lot of good updates. Ryan Cos is seeking $21M from the city to kickstart some of the stalled parts of the project. https://www.startribune.com/developer-s ... /601126909

Most of the public funding being requested — $18.6 million — would go toward the estimated $61 million development of the vacant block along Ford Parkway, which Michalski described as the gateway to 135-acre site. Ryan would build a four-story building with 97 apartments and about 9,500 square feet of first-floor retail space and four separate one-story buildings with about 25,000 square feet of commercial space, as well as parking and a private access road.

I don't have a problem with a few one-story retail buildings in the mix, but would heavily scrutinize how they are arranged, watching out for entrance door orientation and blank facades, etc. 34,000 sq. ft. is a decent amount of retail space, especially if broken up into smaller buildings of mostly smaller tenant spaces. It's not a ton (and not the 80,000 originally envisioned), but it's still good for this project. When thinking about the long-term future of Highland Park, I remind myself that there's still the old Lunds space to fill (or redevelop), and the entire north side of Ford Parkway could someday be redeveloped with mixed use buildings as well. There's no shortage of retail space around the core of Highland, and the intersection of Ford & Cleveland should always remain the focus "100 percent corner".

Sidebar: Target should close that borderline useless mini-Target and open a medium-sized Target in the old Lunds space. That would be preferable to a Planet Fitness or pickleball gym taking the old Lunds. Probably won't happen since it's quite a ways too small for even a downsized regular Target.

Nearly $3 million more is being sought to help cover the costs of installing utilities, building alleys and other site prep for 55 new row homes.

Pulte (rowhome builder) declined their option to acquire another 7.5 acres from Ryan Cos (I'm guessing it's the land south of Montreal & west of Mt. Curve), but another rowhome developer is interested, provided the infrastructure subsidy comes through.

As the article notes, on the bright side of all this there is already some excess TIF capacity because some of the completed buildings have a higher market value than was anticipated when the TIF district was set up. In particular the row homes are worth 72% more than anticipated. They were initially marketing "low 400s" back when the project was approved, and they have been selling above 700k.

While this injection of additional TIF subsidy would keep things moving in the right direction, I don't think this $21M would do anything to boost market-rate apartments planned for the dozen blocks south of Bohland, east of the central water feature. Those projects were always going to take a decade plus as demand materialized. I don't foresee any movement on those blocks until interest rates come down and St. Paul further relaxes its rent control policy as it applies to new construction (e.g. exempt for 30 years instead of the current 20)

[altus4]

I don't love that this latest proposal would reduce the amount of housing, and I also don't love single story buildings—particularly at this prime corner of Ford & Cretin.

However, the flip side is that I also don't want to wait forever for more housing, or for that key entry into the project to be developed.

Perhaps if Mayor Carter's rent control revisions get passed more housing density would be feasible again here?

[Mdcastle]

Wonder if they have specific tenants that are only interested if they can have a single story building

[bubzki2]

Once you have single-story buildings, good luck getting those torn down in the next few decades. I would wait until we can do it right.

[thespeedmccool]

Notes from the Highland Bridge update that Ryan gave to the Highland District Council last week:

• There is a developer interested in the rowhome lots that Pulte didn't want, and that should be moving to a deal soon.
• The parcel at the north end that Ryan is proposing to build one-story retail on would include "national and local tenants" and a day care is supposedly interested in one building. Also of note, that lot includes a short parking ramp.
• There's a developer interested in pivoting some of the yet-to-sell lots to condos.
• The fourth and final municipal park in the development will be finished this fall.
• The final Pulte rowhomes are starting in the next year.
• Marcella phase 2 is 90% pre-leased.
• CommonBond is preparing to break ground on 60 units of income restricted senior housing this fall.
• St. Thomas likely won't start it's facilities until 2026.

The upshot seems to be that things are moving, just slowly given rates, rent control, etc.

[angrysuburbanite]

No news, but I just wanted to say again how unbelievably well-designed and executed the public parks and quasi-public spaces at Highland Bridge are. In a world where there's a lot of things worth complaining about, and whole lot of other mostly-fine things we complain about anyways, the public spaces and general layout of Highland Bridge feel pretty close to perfect. Everyone involved in the design of these spaces should be winning all the national awards.

If you haven't stopped by yet, get out there and walk around. Even with the housing development less than half completed, the park areas are buzzing on a nice day. People (in addition to urban planning nerds like us) are driving from elsewhere to walk around the central water feature and use the skate park, dog park, playgrounds, etc.

Thanks for the recommendation! I stopped by today and was also blown away with how great the parks are. I could imagine on a warm summer evening how active it will be once the rest of the development is completed. They did an excellent job making the water feature look natural, and my God those rowhouses look great - and will look better when everything is filled in. The super wide walkways (which are even given street signage!) and bikeways and the tabled crossings... just so, so well done.

I wish these images would display in a grid... oh well.

[Wezle]

Really excited for this development to mature with all of the rowhomes built out and tree canopy formed. Tree lined streets really do make all the difference IMO. Glad they're placing an emphasis on greenery.

[twincitizen]

Feb. 2026 Update: https://highlandbridge.com/2026/03/17/f ... er-update/

Page 3 of the presentation has an update on the # of units built, currently under construction, etc. Page 4 has a map showing ownership of the site.

In a previous update, it was announced that Pulte was tapping out of the for-sale rowhome buildout after this current batch and did not pick up their option to build the rest of the planned rowhomes south of Saunders Ave, ending their buildout at 167 homes. I don't think they've had any issues selling these high-end rowhomes, maybe just a change in direction by Pulte to back out of building the 2nd half of the originally planned "300 plus" units. As far as we know, Ryan is still courting other builders to complete the for-sale rowhomes. There was even a mention at one point that with such dim hopes for building out all of the planned market-rate apartments, some of the Weidner-owned blocks could pivot to for-sale housing. Weidner is planning to move forward on two market-rate apartment buildings on the west side of Cretin Ave between Bohland and Village Way, with the northern block starting construction this summer and the southern one in 2027. Only 9 more Weidner apartment blocks to go after that, lol.

I'm eager for construction to wrap up on the retail buildings west of Lunds. I'm really hoping the retail plaza is well-designed and has an inviting vibe for some restaurants to move in. I haven't read of any confirmed tenants other than a day care center. The surrounding area has lost some fast-casual since Highland Bridge kicked off, with Potbelly, Noodles, and Brueggers all having left the strip adjacent to the old Lunds. That center is looking near-abandoned lately, but apparently there's no chance of it being torn down with Foss Swim School apparently taking over the old Lunds.

The only major change I'm picking up from that map is that the 2nd med-office building slated for Block 5 (far NW corner of the site, south of the skate park) has been cancelled and will instead become a 4th phase of the Marvella senior project. Marvella was originally just the two white skyway connected buildings on either side of Mt Curve Blvd, but will now span four buildings. The 4th building will also include a skyway connection to the first two buildings. Presumably a tenant never materialized for the med-office project, and they are apparently filling the senior housing as fast as they can build it. I wish it wasn't going on this particular block though.

[COLSLAW5]

Someone on skyscraper city said that M/I homes is planning on building the final row homes

[Tiller]

The only major change I'm picking up from that map is that the planned 2nd med-office building (far NW corner of the site, south of the skate park) has been cancelled and will instead become a just-announced 4th phase of the Marvella senior project. Marvella was originally just the two white skyway connected buildings on either side of Mt Curve Blvd, but will now span four buildings. The 4th building will also include a skyway connection to the first two buildings. Presumably a tenant never materialized for the med-office project, and they are apparently filling the senior housing as fast as they can build it.

It's gonna be ironic when inevitably some of the people that opposed the Ford Site redevelopment move into senior housing on site.

[twincitizen]

Someone on skyscraper city said that M/I homes is planning on building the final row homes

Confirmed by the Villager: http://myvillager.com/news/general_news ... 87257.html

Phase two of the Highland Bridge rowhouses is also on the drawing boards. M/I Homes will seek the city’s approval this month for a site plan review. The 50-year-old company is poised to develop townhomes on seven blocks in the southwest part of Highland Bridge. That developer is set to meet with the HDC in May.

[seanrichardryan]

Hopefully the new set of townhomes look better/ more coherent.

[mattaudio]

Isn't the point to have individuality with harmony rather than coherence?

[seanrichardryan]

Yes, but individually, the architecture and composition is a mess.