A Bloomington veterinary clinic’s plan to build in and relocate to southeastern Eden Prairie has been approved by the city’s planning commission and is headed for city council review. Bush Lake Pet Hospital would anchor a new, two-tenant building along Hennepin Town Road near Pioneer Trail, north of the existing Kinderberry Hill Child Development Center. Why it matters: This would boost commercial development in what’s known as the Bluff Country neighborhood of southeastern Eden Prairie, where retail has been slow to arrive because of traffic issues and neighborhood concerns. For example, a plan for a Holiday service station with auto…
Author: Mark Weber
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Mark Weber
Mark joined the Eden Prairie News as a reporter in 1979, just five years after its start, and spent the next 34 years in various roles including editor and publisher, as well as general manager of the parent company, Southwest Newspapers. He also published Edible Twin Cities magazine. His encore career was serving the nonprofit Eden Prairie Community Foundation as executive director. Mark is now retired. He and his wife, Roma, have two grown sons and a daughter-in-law, as well as a grandson. They have lived in Eden Prairie since 1984. "I hope the many words I have typed over the years have helped people understand the world around them."
Eden Prairie residents keep giving high marks to their quality of life and to city-government services, even as communities across the country struggle with issues such as policing and affordable housing. In the City of Eden Prairie’s latest survey of residents, 92% of respondents rated the quality of life in EP as excellent or good, compared to 93% in 2020. That number has never been lower than 89% over the last decade. Why it matters: The community survey taken every two years by the City of Eden Prairie is one of the few instruments that measure what residents like and…
SouthWest Transit’s lengthy search for a new leader has culminated in the hiring of Erik Hansen. Hansen, age 52, will start as CEO on June 5. He replaces Len Simich, who had served as SouthWest Transit’s CEO since 1997. Simich informed the commission of his retirement plans in 2021, and the agency subsequently hired one search firm, then another after being turned down by two CEO finalists. Hansen brings local-government management and business-management experience to SouthWest Transit, most recently as the city administrator of Tracy, a community of about 2,100 residents in southwestern Minnesota. Prior to being hired by the…
The partially-built grocery store thought to be an Amazon Fresh is instead being marketed for another tenant, making it increasingly doubtful the e-commerce giant will ever have a brick-and-mortar grocery presence in Eden Prairie. Why it matters: A grocery store southwest of the intersection of Flying Cloud and Prairie Center drives would have put food within close walking distance of many apartment residents, including senior citizens in Flagstone and people of all ages who will live in the under-construction Paravel Apartments. The unfinished, 41,154-square-foot building is now listed by Mid-America Real Estate-Minnesota, LLC as available for sublease by a big-box…
Getting past the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly difficult for persons with intellectual disabilities, who are more at risk from COVID and have been more isolated as a result. That’s part of why the folks at Eden Prairie-based CHOICE, Inc., which provides jobs and enrichment programs for people with intellectual disabilities, are so grateful for a new grant from the Eden Prairie Community Foundation. The funding will allow CHOICE clients to partner with memory-care residents of Presbyterian Homes’ Flagstone community to create art under the direction of instructors from the Eden Prairie Art Center. “In stressful times, art has been…
Hennepin County District Court’s recent dismissal of a development-related lawsuit against the City of Eden Prairie is being appealed. In petitioning the Minnesota Court of Appeals for relief, plaintiffs EP Land, LLC and Auto Care World, LLC say the district court ruling on April 4 in the city’s favor failed to acknowledge that the development plan rejected by the city in 2021 proposed land uses that were permitted by city code. The plaintiffs had proposed to build a 24-hour, 16-pump Holiday service station and 10-bay Auto Care World auto-repair business on four acres near the intersection of County Road 1…
Editor’s note: This story has been updated. A 107-acre Eden Prairie business campus with a long and storied history is being offered for sale by its current owner, United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI). The campus located north of Valley View Road, east of Interstate Highway 494, has shoreline on Bryant Lake and holds a three-story, 175,000-square-foot building that serves as the wholesale grocery distributor’s regional office. The company said it will relocate to a smaller regional office in the Twin Cities. A location has not been identified. The one-building Eden Prairie campus was established in the 1970s as the national…
A civil lawsuit accusing the Eden Prairie City Council of being “unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious” in voting to reject a proposed gas station and auto-repair business in southeastern EP has been dismissed in Hennepin County District Court. The petitioners, EP Land, LLC and Auto Care World, LLC, had asked the court to direct the city to approve the project or commence eminent domain proceedings. But Judge Thomas J. Conley, in an April 4 ruling, said the city’s 2021 denial of the project was reasonable and did not constitute a “regulatory taking” because alternative development options remain. The legal action resulted…
Several potential development projects, including the former campus of the Minnesota Vikings, were shared with Eden Prairie City Council members on Tuesday, April 4. The possibilities were part of an economic development update presented at a council workshop, as has happened in past years. Why it matters: The projects are conceptual only – and some may never reach the city council for approval – but they hint at what might be ahead for development and redevelopment of Eden Prairie properties and are potential additions to the property-tax base. Economic Development Manager Dave Lindahl said that the construction of apartments and…
The City of Eden Prairie is looking at relocating and expanding its Police Department space, an expensive project that may be affordable because long-term debt for other major projects drops in 2025. Why it matters: More office space and a garage for dozens of police vehicles now parked outside would help the department handle future needs. It would be a costly undertaking – at least $13 million – but might be financed long-term without a big jump in property taxes. The likeliest scenario has the police moving within the Eden Prairie City Center at 8080 Mitchell Road, where the department…