Developer chosen for huge project on Arden Hills munitions plant site
The long-awaited development of one of the state’s premier plots of empty land was triggered late Monday by the selection of a master developer from a group of three big players vying to drive the project.Alatus LLC, overhaulers of the once-troubled Block E in downtown Minneapolis, will oversee the creation of Rice Creek Commons, a 427-acre area better known as the long-vacated Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) site in Arden Hills.
Ramsey County, which owns the property, and the city of Arden Hills want to turn the huge open space near the confluence of three major thoroughfares — Interstates 35W and 694 and Hwy. 10 — into a solar-powered eco-village that they hope becomes a national model for suburban development.Arden Hills Mayor David Grant praised the Alatus-led team for its “attention to vision, to quality, to a sense of place, to a sense of something special.”Private development of the munitions site is slated to begin in late 2017 or early 2018.The decision by a joint county-city commission took less than 20 minutes. It was strongly hinted at in a staff memo praising Alatus’ choice of residential development partner: Tradition Development, creator of the 300-plus-acre Cobblestone Lake project in Apple Valley and an area that planners for the ammo site had toured for inspiration.“Tradition builds a variety of upper-scale residential products, utilizing high-quality finishes,” the staff memo said. “Their communities stress aesthetic cohesion and a product that is not ‘cookie cutter’ in terms of appearance.
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The long-awaited development of one of the state’s premier plots of empty land was triggered late Monday by the selection of a master developer from a group of three big players vying to drive the project.Alatus LLC, overhaulers of the once-troubled Block E in downtown Minneapolis, will oversee the creation of Rice Creek Commons, a 427-acre area better known as the long-vacated Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) site in Arden Hills.Ramsey County, which owns the property, and the city of Arden Hills want to turn the huge open space near the confluence of three major thoroughfares — Interstates 35W and 694 and Hwy. 10 — into a solar-powered eco-village that they hope becomes a national model for suburban development.Arden Hills Mayor David Grant praised the Alatus-led team for its “attention to vision, to quality, to a sense of place, to a sense of something special.”Private development of the munitions site is slated to begin in late 2017 or early 2018.The decision by a joint county-city commission took less than 20 minutes. It was strongly hinted at in a staff memo praising Alatus’ choice of residential development partner: Tradition Development, creator of the 300-plus-acre Cobblestone Lake project in Apple Valley and an area that planners for the ammo site had toured for inspiration.“Tradition builds a variety of upper-scale residential products, utilizing high-quality finishes,” the staff memo said. “Their communities stress aesthetic cohesion and a product that is not ‘cookie cutter’ in terms of appearance. Learn More