Author: Mark Weber

Owners of single-family homes in Eden Prairie this week are learning about increases in their home’s value that are being described as historic and unprecedented. The annual property-value notices are showing that the typical Eden Prairie single-family home increased in value by 19.3% over a 12-month period. And, while the spike in value doesn’t necessarily translate to higher taxes in 2023 – that will depend on budgets and tax levies set next fall by the school district, city, county, and others – it’s an increase that is eye-catching and a reflection of housing demand that is far outstripping supply. Adding…

For longtime Eden Prairie residents Michael and Mai Bui, the Asia Mall being constructed in the shuttered Gander Outdoors building at 12160 Technology Drive is a chance to give their EP friends and neighbors greater exposure to Vietnamese cuisine. The new food hall will include an Eden Prairie version of their Pho Mai restaurant, located in the Dinkytown area of Minneapolis, near the University of Minnesota, their alma mater. They also operate MT Noodles in Brooklyn Park and are soon opening a bubble-tea and mocha-donuts concept, Bober Tea and Mochi Dough. Ultimately, they would love to have all three concepts…

Newly announced delays in completing the Southwest LRT project don’t appear to be discouraging plans to build an Eden Prairie apartment complex near one of the LRT stations. The Eden Prairie City Council on Tuesday, March 1, gave approval to the 425-apartment Blue Stem North project that would be within walking distance of the Golden Triangle LRT Station under construction along West 70th Street in the Golden Triangle industrial area of northeastern Eden Prairie. Its developer said that, while proximity to the LRT station is a factor in the project, it is local demographics as well as the large adjoining…

A two-phase, 425-apartment project at 6901 Flying Cloud Drive in northeastern Eden Prairie – near the planned Golden Triangle LRT Station – is being reviewed by the Eden Prairie City Council at its meeting Tuesday, March 1. Proposed by Greco Properties and endorsed by the city’s planning commission, Blue Stem North is technically a redevelopment project. The city OK’d construction of a 128,000-square-foot office building on this site in 2007. Soil correction and some work on the foundation of what was called Liberty Plaza commenced, but the Great Recession followed in 2008 and the project was abandoned. The new plan…

An Eden Prairie nonprofit dedicated to keeping alive the stories and artifacts of U.S. military aircraft is without its showcase museum and searching for a permanent home at Flying Cloud Airport. Wings of the North (WOTN) may be best known for its annual Air Expo, when restored vintage airplanes fly in and out of Flying Cloud Airport. It has also built a large collection of wartime art, uniforms, and aircraft and has also borrowed from other collections across the country. Almost all of that is currently in storage, as WOTN in August lost its lease of five years at Club…

Eden Prairie city officials have agreed to take over control and management of Eden Prairie’s oldest cemetery. At the request of its current caretakers, Eden Prairie Cemetery – like Pleasant Hill Cemetery before it – will come under the city’s control on March 1, folded into the Parks and Recreation Department. The cemetery at 8810 Eden Prairie Road, nearly 160 years old and the resting place of many pioneers, is forecast to have positive year-end financial balances of between $5,000 and $15,000, even when city staff time is taken into account, according to a financial analysis by the city. That’s…

The Eden Prairie City Council has directed city staff to make tax-increment financing (TIF) a part of the final-approval documents for The Ellie apartment project proposed along Eden Prairie Road at Lincoln Lane. The decision Feb. 8 ensures that the financing tool, frequently used by cities – including in Eden Prairie, for several other apartment projects – will increase the number of apartments with lower rents, part of a broader effort to meet affordable-housing goals in the metro area. Using TIF, a city diverts a portion of a project’s increase in property taxes to support a public improvement, in this…

The City of Eden Prairie is being asked to provide tax-increment financing (TIF) assistance to The Ellie apartment project proposed along Eden Prairie Road at Lincoln Lane as a way to increase the number of apartments that will have lower rents. The proposal is among the items the Eden Prairie City Council will consider at its meeting Tuesday, Feb. 8. TIF is a common financing tool that allows a city to divert a portion of a project’s increase in property taxes to support a public improvement, in this case lower rents. If approved, the plan would help make 60 of…

At just seven homes, the Lincoln Lane neighborhood along County Road 4, just north of Smith Coffee & Café, isn’t big by Eden Prairie standards. But it’s deep in Eden Prairie history. The families that lived there in the 1960s and beyond included Eden Prairie High School’s (EPHS) basketball coach, a future Eden Prairie mayor, and kids who would stick around to become an Eden Prairie teacher or police officer. Evening games of “Kick the Can” were common, and the local Little League baseball program may have originated on Lincoln Lane. At one time, a few horses were kept in…

The annual “State of the City” program presented to business leaders Thursday, Jan. 28, had a weathering-the-storm tone and even an occasional overcoming-great-odds vibe. It featured Eden Prairie City Manager Rick Getschow and Superintendent of Eden Prairie Schools Josh Swanson providing updates on 2021 accomplishments and what’s ahead for the city and schools. Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce President Pat MulQueeny also spoke. His organization hosted the event at Central Middle School. The storm and great odds, of course, are the COVID-19 pandemic of nearly two years. It had a sizable presence in the chamber of commerce and school district…