Major infill projects begin construction

Among the developments that broke ground in 2001 are several high-density urban projects with the potential to become regional, in some cases national, models. In Midtown Atlanta, for example, new streets and other infrastructure are going in on the former steel plant site that will house Atlantic Station, a project encompassing 12 million square feet of residences, retail, and offices. Lindbergh Center, Atlanta’s first major transit-oriented development, is under construction around a suburban commuter rail station. In Nashville, the high-density, mixed-use Gulch Neighborhood has broken ground on a 65-acre former railyard. The plan by Looney Ricks Kiss calls for more than 1,800 residential units, a hotel, and more than a million square feet of retail. Nashville has become a city to watch since prominent new urbanist planner Rick Bernhardt became director of planning late last year. Another ambitious infill project by Looney Ricks Kiss has broken ground in Downtown Tupelo, Mississippi. The city’s grid extends into the 50-acre site, and in addition to a mixed traditional residential neighborhood, the redevelopment includes a main street district with retail, entertainment, hotel uses, as well as a conference center and offices. The project’s developer is the Henry Turley Company. In California, prominent new projects include Mission Bay in San Francisco, Santana Row in San Jose, and the Waterfront District in Hercules. Mission Bay occupies a former industrial waterfront site immediately south of the downtown business district. The project is one of the most multifaceted infill projects now under construction. It features a mix of residences, including a substantial affordable housing element, a new research campus for the University of California at San Francisco, 5 million square feet of office space, up to 700,000 square feet of retail, a hotel, and nearly 50 acres of new parks. The master plan for the 300 acres acres is by Johnson Fain Partners. Santana Row is one of several major greyfield mall revitalizations to get underway in 2001. Others include CityCenter Englewood and Belmar in Denver area (see July/August 2001 issue). Santana Row, designed by Cooper Carry and developed by Federal Realty Investment Trust, will offer 1,200 residences both above retail and in freestanding townhomes and apartment buildings. The tight street and block layout and the absence of surface parking lots will distinguish Santana Row from the conventional suburban retail uses around the project. Additional promising projects getting underway include: Townsend, an infill neighborhood in Gainesville, Florida which is the first to follow the city’s TND ordinance; Norton Commons, a greenfield project in Louisville, Kentucky, which has weathered strong opposition; Frisco Square, a high-density town center for Frisco, Texas; The Peninsula Neighborhood in Iowa City, Iowa, which has taken on the challenge of incorporating affordable housing seamlessly through the entire neighborhood; and Park Commons in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a strip shopping center conversion which has been in planning for six years. Minnesota infill Elsewhere in the Twin Cities area, two significant mixed-use, infill developments are underway in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. Since 1997, the city has had a vision for redevelopment based on a series of “urban villages” designed to create a more cohesive urban fabric on both sides of the Mississippi River. “The St. Paul on the Mississippi Development Framework” was spearheaded by Urban Strategies, a Canadian town planning firm which has designed several new urbanist communities in the Toronto region. Two projects, the Northeast Quadrant and West Side Flats, are direct outgrowths of the framework plan and have begun construction. Farthest along is the Northeast Quadrant — the first phase, currently nearing completion, includes 152 apartments and condominiums, and future phases could add another 450 units of housing to downtown St. Paul. The development is made up of new four- and five-story buildings mixed in with rehabilitation of old industrial buildings. The City Council recently approved the creation of a tax-increment financing district for the second phase of the Northeast Quadrant. Designed by the now disbanded Town Planning Collaborative (TPC), the project is being developed by local developers The Lander Group and Sherman Associates. Former principals from TPC are also behind West Side Flats, a 45-acre project on the Mississippi River designed by HGA Architects. The master plan incorporates a riverfront esplanade and a linear greenway into a rectangular street grid with a mix of main street buildings, corporate offices, urban row houses, live/work buildings, and courtyard apartment buildings. Not only will the site accommodate 1,330 new housing units, it also reuses a prime site in an area that has suffered from disinvestment and which includes several acres of vacant land. The St. Paul projects provides evidence that large-scale vision plans can make a real difference when the political will is present. “It’s been a long haul,” says Don Johnson of the Lander Group, “but we’ve had a very productive collaboration with the city, and the public sector involvement has been crucial to get the neighborhood going.”