Eden Prairie City Council members have been told to prepare for much higher construction costs to replace a 40-year-old, cement-block warming house and multi-use building at Round Lake Park. A project the city thought would cost $1.25 million two years ago may cost as much as $2.1 million, Parks Director Jay Lotthammer told the council Tuesday evening, Jan. 18, although the city won’t know for sure until construction bids are reviewed in several months. Construction costs across the Twin Cities and the country, for that matter, have gone up sharply for a variety of reasons, including labor shortages and supply-chain…
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."
Three Eden Prairie High School seniors who have been friends since middle school are behind a fundraising concert on Sunday, Jan. 16, that will benefit The Bridge for Youth and its work with homeless teenagers in the Twin Cities area. Karina Papa, Sreya Patri, and Anna Maristela have organized the concert, which is at 5-6 p.m. in the EPHS Performing Arts Center. There, ticket holders will hear performances of music ranging from classical to pop, from singers to instrumentalists. Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased online. Donations can also be made online. Gift cards and certificates donated by…
A sign that light-rail transit (LRT) construction is influencing development in Eden Prairie is a large apartment project called Blue Stem North, endorsed Monday, Jan. 10, by the city’s planning commission. The 425-apartment Blue Stem North project at 6901 Flying Cloud Drive would not be within walking distance to existing shopping, city parks, or schools. But it would be within walking distance to the Golden Triangle LRT Station, one of four LRT stations planned for Eden Prairie and one located in the job-rich area of northeastern EP. It would also be another entry in the city’s transit-oriented development (TOD) zone,…
Eden Prairie should build on the anti-bias and de-escalation training its police officers and firefighters currently receive, according to a Race Equity Report prepared by the Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission. That and other recommendations presented to and endorsed by the city council on Tuesday, Jan. 4, are meant to tackle racism and other inequities that may have grown as Eden Prairie has become more diverse over the last three decades. The report also recommends work to make city staff and leadership more diverse and city programs more inclusive. The idea of looking at race equity in Eden…
A flurry of apartment projects either under construction or in the City of Eden Prairie’s review pipeline could quickly increase the number of local households. The 24,790 Eden Prairie households identified in the 2020 Census would increase by 3.6 percent – more than 900 households – if three apartment projects that are already approved or seeking the city’s OK reach fruition and become fully occupied. Two other projects described as strictly conceptual at this point would raise those numbers even more. It reflects a Twin Cities-area multi-family housing market that is benefiting from what Matthew Mullins, vice president at Maxfield…
A City of Eden Prairie effort to reflect on race equity, diversity, and inclusion following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 has resulted in a Race Equity Report produced by the city’s Human Rights and Diversity Commission. The report will be formally presented to the Eden Prairie City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 4. Among the commission’s recommendation is that the city enhance or expand its “de-escalation” training for Eden Prairie police officers and firefighters so that these techniques are top-of-mind. For more information about the Jan. 4 meeting of the city council, which starts at 7 p.m. at…
It was a jubilant moment. Well, as jubilant as is allowed at your average Eden Prairie City Council meeting. There were balloons, a standing ovation, and fists thrown into the air. All in celebration of the city’s acquisition of more than 30 acres from Hennepin County, at the cost of about $600,000, that would become the Birch Island Woods Conservation Area, located near Eden Prairie’s northern boundary with Minnetonka. “Without your support, in the ninth inning, with two out, this might not have worked,” activist Jeff Strate told the council. The moment was Dec. 4, 2001, and it was not…
Construction of an office building that would be the Twin Cities corporate home of Nor-Son Construction and Nor-Son Custom Builders was endorsed Monday, Dec. 13, by the Eden Prairie Planning Commission. The 15,400-square-foot, two-story office building would be located on Market Place Drive but also have frontage on Interstate Highway 494. The company currently has offices in Wayzata and a headquarters in the Brainerd area. The straightforward project only drew debate from commission members on the subject of using metal on part of the exterior façade. Some members wanted the use of a higher-grade metal cladding that would be less…
A proposal to build a 239-unit apartment complex along Eden Prairie Road north of Smith Coffee & Café was approved Tuesday, Dec. 7, by the Eden Prairie City Council, even as the council pledged to look at design changes that would make the building more attractive. Between now and the council’s final approval in January or February, the council wants city staff and the developer, United Properties, to reconsider the colors and building materials proposed for the 349,800-square-foot building to create “a new look,” as Council Member PG Narayanan put it. The current colors and building materials meet city code,…
The Eden Prairie City Council usually reviews plans for buildings that are going up. On Tuesday, Dec. 7, it looked at a proposal to take one down. The council OK’d plans by Shutterfly to demolish the western-most building of its two-building campus north of I-494, along Viking Drive, and leave the area open and green for its employees to enjoy. The campus was built in 1997 by Lifetouch, which Shutterfly purchased in 2018. Lifetouch was a leader in school photography, and much of the building proposed to be demolished contains empty studio space that is no longer used. The targeted…