City team helps secure $21.5 million for Nicollet Mall project
A cross-departmental City team including employees from Intergovernmental Relations, Public Works, Community Planning and Economic Development, Communications and others played a key role in recently securing $21.5 million in bonding from the State to renovate Nicollet Mall in Downtown.
Downtown businesses are also committing up to $25 million to the project through an effort led by the Downtown Council.
The Nicollet Mall makeover is slated to begin next year and will make the space more pedestrian friendly. The latest concept designs build connections between the street and the skyways and link Loring Park with the Mississippi River. The concept design includes features such as areas for new and hardier trees, enhanced sidewalk spaces, improved lighting, fire pits and a pedestrian “island” that connects foot traffic on the mall to the skyways. You can see artist renderings of the designs at nicolletmallproject.com.
The Nicollet Mall project is now moving into the final design phase after three large public meetings and multiple smaller community conversations were held to gather public input into the design.
Nicollet Mall by the numbers
- 130,000 workers Downtown use Nicollet Mall each day.
- More than 34 million square feet of office space is on Nicollet Mall.
- Three Fortune 500 companies have headquarters on the mall (U.S. Bank, Xcel Energy and Target).
The redesigned mall is expected to:
- Generate $105.5 million in additional spending in Minnesota.
- Create close to 3,000 new jobs.
- Increase the value of properties in the area by an additional $57.2 million.
- Expand visitors to the area and strengthen the region’s attractiveness for convention business.
- Stimulate additional private investment.
Published May 27, 2014
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