Eden Prairie prepares for light-rail era with millions in infrastructure upgrades

While the arrival of the Metro Green Line light-rail extension is still on the horizon, Eden Prairie is already laying the groundwork for a more transit-oriented future. Defying a wait-and-see approach, the city is putting millions of dollars into new or upgraded infrastructure, ensuring its streets and trails are ready to embrace the coming light-rail era around future stations.

The city projects include:

• About $1.2 million to complete the extension and upgrade of West 70th Street, where nearly $1.3 million was spent during a first phase in 2015. The street provides access to the Golden Triangle light-rail station in northeastern Eden Prairie.
• Nearly $1.4 million for this year’s upgrade of Shady Oak Road, also near the Golden Triangle station.
• A possible trail project in the City West area that would connect existing residents and offices to the City West light-rail station, located near Optum at the Eden Prairie-Minnetonka border. The trail was estimated in 2023 to cost about $650,000.

Other possible light-rail-related projects are more speculative, as they appear in the city’s long-range capital improvement plan (CIP). They include:

• 2025 – $210,000 for bike racks at the Golden Triangle and Eden Prairie Town Center light-rail stations, plus plantings at the west leg of Town Center Place, all to “facilitate public gathering, wayfinding, and access to the station areas.”
• 2025-2034 – From $450,000 to $820,000 per year over 10 years, totaling $5.245 million, to build missing links in Eden Prairie’s system of trails and sidewalks, some of which need to be constructed as a result of the light-rail project. The work would be funded by the city’s Park Improvement Fund, the Capital Maintenance and Reinvestment Fund, the Trails Fund, and grants.
• 2033-34 – $1.25 million to improve the intersection of Valley View and Shady Oak roads, with new traffic signals and turn lanes, to handle Golden Triangle-area development sparked by the light-rail station.
• 2034 — $25 million, with funding from the state and the city of Edina, to upgrade the Hwy. 169/Valley View Road interchange to accommodate growth in the Golden Triangle area.

And that doesn’t include a potential new fire station in the Golden Triangle area – so named for its concentration of tax-generating industry and its borders along Interstate 494, and Highways 169 and 212. The area is currently served primarily by the fire station on Scenic Heights Road, next to city hall. A 2024 fire study indicated that a new station may eventually be needed in the city’s northeastern corner.

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Some of the street projects would have been done regardless of light rail, according to Public Works Director Robert Ellis, including the repaving of Shady Oak Road, though perhaps not the new trail alongside it.

But he acknowledges that light rail is motivating some of the work, as it not only adds another transit option to the Golden Triangle but is also expected to spur new development and redevelopment of existing parcels.

“There will be a lot of changes in the future, once light rail is operational,” said Ellis.

Higher density forecast near stations

The Green Line extension, a 14.5-mile route between Minneapolis and Eden Prairie, is more than 80% complete, according to the Metropolitan Council, which is overseeing the project. Four of its 16 light-rail stations are in Eden Prairie: City West, Golden Triangle, Town Center, and SouthWest Station.

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But the nearly $3 billion project has encountered construction challenges that have created delays and increased costs going back years. A new audit of the project found a number of shortcomings in the Met Council’s oversight that needlessly increased the price tag and timeline.

The schedule calls for the Green Line extension – formerly known as the Southwest light-rail extension – to begin operations in 2027. The delays have given Eden Prairie time to enhance local access and anticipate development.

For example, the Eden Prairie City Council in 2016 adopted a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) ordinance meant to guide development near light-rail stations by providing design, building, and zoning standards that allow higher-density development in areas within a 10-minute walk of stations.

The thought was that infrastructure improvements like light rail would add value to the surrounding property, encouraging developers or redevelopers to build to a parcel’s highest and best use, creating more taxable value for the community.

Eden Prairie’s first TOD was Elevate at Southwest Station, built in 2019 at 12900 Technology Drive. The project includes 13,000 square feet of commercial space and 222 residential units above retail. It sits adjacent to the Shops of SouthWest Station and the transit hub operated by SouthWest Transit and Metro Transit.

Another example of TOD is The Fox & The Grouse apartments, located within walking distance of the Golden Triangle light-rail station. Developed by Greco and Eagle Ridge Partners, the first 237 units of the planned 425-unit apartment complex have been built. (EPLN reached out to the developer for information on the second phase but did not receive a response.)

“It’s all part of the toolbox,” City Planner Jeremy Barnhart said about the TOD ordinance and its influence in making Eden Prairie more transit-friendly.

At the time of the apartment project’s approval, its developer said that, while proximity to the light-rail station is a factor in the project, it is local demographics as well as the large adjoining wetland, nearby park trails, and other outdoor amenities that will likely make the project attractive to renters.

The Fox & The Grouse property is forecast to have a value, for property-tax purposes, of about $119 million when complete and will generate more than $4 million in property taxes – $1.3 million for the city alone.

However, because the city offered tax-increment financing (TIF) as a subsidy in order to ensure that 87 of the 425 units will be set aside for lower-income residents, the property taxes generated by a fully developed property won’t begin flowing to the county, city, and school district until after 2049, when the TIF district expires. Until then, tax “increments” are being used to finance the construction project and its 87 affordable units.

The city has seen other development near the Golden Triangle light-rail station that is also indirectly related to transit.

Aldevron, a Fargo, North Dakota-based company that manufactures critical nucleic acids and proteins used by scientists around the world to research cell and gene therapies, has purchased a vacant, 345,503-square-foot building at 7075 Flying Cloud Drive, once used by Best Buy and Supervalu. In January 2024, it received Eden Prairie City Council approval to build a 96,244-square-foot addition and remodel other portions to make the building move-in-ready.

It means approximately 500 new jobs in Eden Prairie, according to the city.

And three years ago, SunOpta, a company that manufactures sustainable, plant- and fruit-based food and beverages, opened its new headquarters and innovation center in Eden Prairie, also near the Golden Triangle station.

Barnhart noted that Eden Prairie also has a fair amount of office space near light rail stations “that might be prime for redevelopment.” The city has recently OK’d several redevelopment projects where vacant office buildings were torn down to make way for residential or industrial uses.

Bids come in below estimates

Until light rail arrives, those and other companies will benefit from the concrete and asphalt work that has been contracted by the city. Here are some details on projects mentioned above:

• Last month, the City Council OK’d contracts totaling nearly $1.4 million, including state funds, for upgrades to a 0.8-mile section of Shady Oak Road east of Flying Cloud Drive. The price came in nearly $315,000 lower than the city’s preliminary estimate. In addition to improving the asphalt pavement, the city will add a multiuse trail, benches and streetlights to make it easier for residents and workers to get to and from the Golden Triangle station.
• While that project begins this year, the city is wrapping up work on the extension and improvement of West 70th Street and associated streetscape and trails. A nearly $1.3 million connection to Flying Cloud Drive was made in 2015, and a second phase costing about $1.2 million will be completed this year, with the help of a $470,000 transit-related grant from Hennepin County. The $1.2-million contract for the second phase was $800,000 below the preliminary estimate for the project.
• On the horizon is that potential trail linking 3,000 jobs and 374 housing units in the City West area of northeastern Eden Prairie to the City West light-rail station next to the Optum campus, which has its own trails to the station. The proposed trail has a 2023 cost estimate of roughly $650,000, not including easement costs, though city officials believe grants and developer contributions will pay part of the cost. Similarly, the developer of The Fox & The Grouse apartment complex paid for a trail connecting its project to the nearby Golden Triangle station.