New Golden Valley Apartment Complex One Step Closer to Reality
Along Golden Valley Road and Wisconsin Avenue sits a Wells Fargo Bank and a vacant building that was once home to a Park Nicollet Clinic.
Golden Valley officials want to do more with that area.
“We’ve been looking at the downtown, and even this site in particular, for quite a while,” said Golden Valley City Planner Jason Zimmerman.
A developer, Sentinel Management Company, has proposed demolishing the Park Nicollet building and constructing a new Wells Fargo on that site.
Then, they want to demolish the current bank and replace it with a 302-unit apartment complex.
“Ultimately we were drawn to this site because of the city’s vision for it, and to have a part in transforming the city’s downtown into a suburban, urban, vibrant transit-oriented neighborhood,” said Fabrizio Montermini, the managing director for Sentinel Management.
At a city council meeting Tuesday night, people in the neighborhood came out for a public hearing to voice their thoughts.
“I’m for it. I don’t care that there’s an apartment building there,” said Ted Wender, a Golden Valley resident. “I’m sick of looking at the Wells Fargo building.”
Others, however, brought up a host of other concerns — from the unwanted shade an apartment building would provide, to increased traffic in the area, to crime.
“I had $1,764 taken from me because they got my purse and they got into my bank and they had someone impersonate me, right?” said a resident named Lauren. “And we have eight cops for 22,700 people in Golden Valley, and we want to add 300 units where 2 people per unit can live. Could we handle that?”
This Wells Fargo along Golden Valley Road would be demolished to make room for a new apartment complex.
The council acknowledged their concerns.
“I want to encourage the developer to really take into account the feedback from the neighborhood,” said Council Member Denise La Mere-Anderson.
However, they ultimately, they decided that the apartment complex would be a good thing for the area.
“I think increasing the density there will increase the chance that we’ll have more restaurants, more retail, more grocery stores and things like that,” said Council Member Kimberly Sandberg.
As for what’s next, city officials say the remaining steps include going through the Tax Increment Financing approval process with the City’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority and City Council before any demolition of the clinic building can occur. Once that is done, the phased redevelopment can begin (demo the clinic, build the new bank building, move Wells Fargo into their new facility, demo old bank building, construct apartments).
Demo of the old bank building would likely occur later this summer.
Related: Golden Valley Planning Commission Reviews Initial Plans for 302-unit Apartment Building
