After years of wait, construction moving fast on Highland Bridge development project

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The last truck rolled off the assembly line of St. Paul’s Ford plant in 2011.  Years of demolition, clean up, and planning for its redevelopment followed. And what is now sprouting up on that site has neighbors stunned.

"It’s incredible" raved Tina Fahnestock.  "We’re thrilled with what’s going on! It’s beautiful!"

Tina walks through the Highland Bridge project a few times a week.  On a stroll Wednesday with her friend Holly Eret, both women said that anyone who hadn’t been by here in a few months would be amazed at the transformation.

"They need to come check it out," said Holly. "They need to come walk it. It’s beautiful."

"Even today," added Tina, "I just had said to my dear friend, wow, I saw a building go up overnight! Literally!"

They were walking around the centerpiece of the development, a waterway known as Unjci Makha Park, which opened to the public in August.  It quickly became popular with walkers and runners, as did Gateway Park at the northwest corner, which opened in July and features a skate park that is usually packed.

"We were laughing the first weeks it was open," said Chris Tolbert, the St. Paul City Councilperson for Highland Park. "There was a bunch of kids there at 7 am! It was amazing to me there were teenagers anywhere at 7 a.m.!"

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Tolbert grew up in this neighborhood, where the Ford Plant had operated for nearly a century.  Even though it’s been over a decade since it shut down, he said everything that followed - the demolition, soil clean-up, and planning - he considers to be quick.

"I would wager this is probably the fastest from plant closure to clean up to the start of redevelopment… probably for sure in the state and probably across the country."

The first residents of the project began moving in last month.  Some in apartments built above a new Lunds & Bylerlys that opened in late September.  Others in the first dozen or so of more than 300 planned row homes, which will continue to be built over the next couple of years.

Also under construction are senior apartments and a medical building.  Yet to come are a number of apartment buildings, custom homes, and some affordable housing complexes.

For years, this was an empty construction site, focused on removing all traces of contamination the plant left behind.   In the past few months, seemingly so suddenly, it’s literally a community rising from the ground.

"Oh, it’s incredible," said Miguel Lindgren, who runs through the site a few times a week.

"I’ve seen it go from just a bare-bones construction site to seeing all the new buildings up and how quickly they do it, it’s amazing!"