Downtown's Next Renovation?

After establishing a business incubator in a former HCMC building in 2004, the group slipped under the radar. But it could become more active again next year.

Dave Durenberger, a member of the Lifesciences Corridor executive committee, says the group is looking forward to the city’s planned 2009 reconstruction of Chicago Avenue, which it believes will encourage the creation of med-tech companies there. Infrastructure and cosmetic improvements along the stretch from 28th Street to Washington Avenue should also make Chicago more appealing to the thousands of health care workers in the area that Elliot Park hopes will become neighborhood residents and shoppers. The idea is to make Chicago less of a throughway and more of a parkway.

But the player that might have the biggest impact on Elliot Park is the Minnesota Vikings. Last year, Zygi Wilf, the team’s lead owner and a long-time real estate developer, bought some open land around the Metrodome. Wilf hopes to open the 2012 season in a new stadium on the Metrodome site, surrounded by what he’s calling the “Winter Garden,” a complex incorporating new retail, housing, and office space. Lester Bagley, the team’s vice president of public affairs and stadium development, says the idea remains very much alive, but depends on whether the state will help finance the project.

In February, the financially strapped Star Tribune put its extensive property holdings around the Metrodome, including its headquarters building, up for sale. The Vikings, who pulled out of a Strib land deal last year, haven’t made a new offer as of early April.  

The condo boom brought Elliot Park a great step forward. With the economy uncertain and the real estate market stalled, the neighborhood’s next direction is unclear. New investors and developers are needed. Otherwise, Elliot Park may remain a secret a little while longer.