The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board approved a purchase agreement Aug. 15 for a Northeast Minneapolis home that’s worth $1 million.
The board will add roughly .75 acres at 22nd & Marshall to its collection of riverfront properties, which, under its Above the Falls Regional Plan, will one day be developed into new parks and trails along the North and Northeast banks of the river.
“This is a patchwork quilt, and it’s a beautiful one. I’m so excited about this,” said At-Large Commissioner Meg Forney.
The Park Board won’t actually pay $1 million for the property. The seller is donating $150,000, bringing down the price to $850,000. The board plans to pay an initial $250,000 then pay the remaining $600,000 over four years.
Part of the property’s cost stems from its high-density R6 zoning, which park staff said would allow a developer to buy the property and turn it into a 50-unit building.
“It does sting a little bit,” President Brad Bourn (District 6) said. “It does seem like we’re spending more to get less, but everything will cost more tomorrow than it does today.”
The board is assessing what it can do with a two-and-a-half-story home built in 1896 and a commercial building that’s being leased as a single-family residence until the land can be developed. Park staff said they could rent them out or even sell the older building to someone who would move it to another site,
In total, the property features approximately 120 linear feet of Mississippi riverfront. It sits between Edgewater Park at Lowry & Marshall and Gluek Park, which sits just south of 22nd Avenue Northeast.
