Met Council Awards Hopkins $26K for Lutheran Digest Site

Hopkins has once again collected on a grant that will assist with downtown development.

The Metropolitan Council on Wednesday awarded Hopkins $26,200 to help with cleanup at the Lutheran Digest site on Ninth Avenue that’s to be part of .

The money is part of $2.4 million in “brownfield cleanup funding” that went to 13 redevelopment projects in seven communities across the metro.

“The Council awards cleanup funds twice a year and they are an important tool we use to create jobs and promote economic development,” Council Chairwoman Susan Haigh was quoted in a news release. “Resources we’re allocating this funding round will help clean up nearly 40 acres, create or retain 700 jobs, increase the net tax base by $1.2 million, help to produce 421 affordable housing units and encourage $200 million in private investment. That’s a great return on our investment.”

This year, 21 projects requested about $4.2 million total in brownfield cleanup money.

The Lutheran Digest funding is a “Contamination Site Investigation” grant. It will help pay for environmental assessments, a hazardous materials survey, an asbestos emission control plan and development of a response action plan for the site.

That site will be combined with the adjacent Eighth Avenue property that was once the site of the Park Nicollet Clinic. Klodt plans a 163-unit complex on the two sites.

The development, which will eventually have retail space on Eighth Avenue, is intended to be part of a pedestrian-seductive corridor that will entice future light-rail passengers into the downtown from a stop planned across Excelsior Boulevard.

Stay up to date on all your local news. Sign up for the free Hopkins Patch newsletter, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Editor James Warden's Pinterest boards. Do you own a local business? to learn about five easy ways your business can use Patch.