Hennepin County Awards Hopkins $400K for Parking Facility

Hopkins received a $400,000 Challenge Grant to build a public parking facility in the downtown as part of a $2 million package of Hennepin County funding that aims to spur development in transit corridors.

Commissioners voted Tuesday to set aside money to assist transit-oriented development in Hopkins’ Eighth Avenue Corridor. A Southwest Light Rail Transit stop is planned across Excelsior Boulevard, and planners aim to create a “pedestrian seductive” corridor that will entice riders into Hopkins’ downtown.

The plan when the City Council OK’d an agreement with Klodt Inc. for on the old Park Nicollet site.

The shared parking facility was one of six projects to receive transit-oriented development funds—with four in Minneapolis, one in Richfield and one in Hopkins.
Projects were evaluated on several criteria—included the economic development impact and likelihood of catalyzing additional development, transit-friendly design and the ability of the project to leverage other investment partners.
In all, Hennepin County received 11 applications worth $4.7 million total.

Hennepin County expects the funding for the approved projects to leverage $45.5 million in private and public funding and create more than 150 housing units, 84,500 square feet of commercial space and 140 jobs.

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