Star Tribune
Long-awaited demolition begins at Lake Street Kmart site
Demolition began Tuesday on the Lake Street Kmart building, which has drawn criticism for years over Minneapolis’ decision to bisect Nicollet Avenue for its construction in the late 1970s.
Crews began tearing down the west end of the former department store and hauling away rubble at 7 a.m. Tuesday, with the work expected to continue into next week, said project superintendent Jim Jude. Another week and a half will be dedicated to pouring concrete to level the demolished site.
By late Tuesday morning, about a quarter of the building had been torn down, with the demolition debris steadily moved out by dump trucks.
The city had planned to demolish the building next spring, making way for a reconnected Nicollet Avenue and a mixed-use development of housing and businesses. Minneapolis paid $9.1 million in 2020 to buy out Kmart’s lease in preparation for the demolition.
But those plans were sped up after a fire broke out in late October, destroying the rear of the building and making the site unsafe. The cause of the fire is undetermined, according to investigators.
Minneapolis signed a $638,000 contract in early November with St. Michael-based Rachel Contracting for the demolition and debris removal.
Construction on the roadway to reconnect Nicollet Avenue is scheduled to begin in 2025, with other development following in 2027.
When the Lake Street Kmart opened in 1977, it was part of a revitalization effort for the Nicollet Avenue and Lake Street area. The decision to block Nicollet, a major city thoroughfare, inspired resistance from the beginning.
Since the store closed in 2020, homeless encampments have emerged in areas outside the building and around the perimeter.
Community leaders and city officials last month sought public feedback on the redevelopment of the 10-acre site.
People gathered Tuesday morning at the bus stop across 1st Avenue to watch two excavators rip into the building. Stephen McHenry stopped by on his bike to watch what he called “cheap entertainment … It’s exciting.”
McHenry was happy to see the building come down, recalling that it would take him a long time to find what he needed at the big box store. A board member of the Lyndale Neighborhood Association, he said the demolition represents the city turning over a new leaf — a chance for city neighborhoods to see what can happen without a superstore in their midst.
“Not seeing it is a nice start,” he added.
Seeing the building come down was disappointing for Trish Bock, who had fond memories of shopping at Kmart — especially in the garden shop.
“It was really nice to shop at, in its heyday,” Bock said. “Whatever you wanted, you could get it.”
Bock, a longtime resident of Stevens Square, which does not border the Kmart location, thought city officials should have included the broader community in the discussion on the site’s future, rather than limit input to those who lived directly around the site.
Bock created a Facebook page to document and share the story of the building. She said she’s posted photos of the building’s original mural, the progression of the graffiti, a homeless encampment settling in across the street, the camp’s removal the day before the fire — and the fire itself on Oct. 20.
“People lost track of the history of Kmart and denigrated it,” she said.
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
The school said in its lawsuit that both Hugo and May Township consider the land rural residential zoning, and that the codes identify a school as a conditional use. Hugo officials have generally supported the LCA plan, granting a building permit in 2022 that allowed LCA to invest $2.1 million into the former Withrow school for renovations.
The school said in its lawsuit that the existing septic system is failing and needs to be replaced, regardless of expansion plans.
The school said it notified neighbors of the property in 2022 and again in 2023 about its land purchase. About 50 residents in total attended those meetings, and just two expressed concerns over the issues of traffic and lights, according to the suit. The school met with the May Township board in May of 2023, and minutes from that meeting show that the board had no concerns beyond lighting at the time, according to the suit. The board asked if the school could use “down lighting” for its athletic fields and the school said it would.
In June, Hugo City Council approved a conditional use permit for the school, but the May Township board voted to extend the decision deadline to early August.
The suit says it was at a subsequent meeting in July that May Town Board Chairman John Pazlar objected to the plan for the first time, saying “the main concern, based on public comment, is to keep Town of May rural.”
The school said its plans for the May Township portion of its property had been submitted eight months prior to the July meeting, and that its plans met requirements of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
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