PHOTO TIMELINE: Gallery Flats Seeing Big Changes Despite Snow

The Park Nicollet and Lutheran Digest sites in downtown Hopkins look radically different just three weeks after crews started demolition on the buildings that once occupied the site.

Despite the snow, the buildings are gone, dirt work has begun and cranes are busy lowering materials into place at the Gallery Flats project. On Tuesday, workers were hard at work placing beams into the ground.

Developer Klodt Cos. plans a two-building project that will have a total of 163 apartments—and create nine jobs, increase the tax base by $480,525 and leverage $24.4 million in private investment, according to the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

The project launched when the city snapped up the former Park Nicollet site on Eighth Avenue after the health care provider closed its clinic in 2009.

Eighth Avenue is central to the city’s long-term plans because of the Southwest Light Rail Transit stop planned just across Excelsior Boulevard from the corridor. The city wants to create an enticing “pedestrian seductive” streetscape that could lure light rail riders the few blocks over to Mainstreet.

The first building should be on the market close to April 1, 2014. The second should be done by September 2014.

Patch invites you to follow along as the project progresses. We’ve collected key moments in the project’s history in the timeline above—and we will be adding photos to the timeline as the project progresses. So check back regularly for the latest updates.

Follow us on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Sign up for our free daily newsletter | Check out Patch’s Pinterest boards