It was 2019 when I first wrote about the St. Paul Ford truck plant history and Ryan Company plans for reshaping it into a walkable village of thousands powered by the state’s largest urban solar array. It seemed far into the future even though they anticipated that in three years the first people could start moving in.
Of course then Covid-19 happened along with supply chain issues and all schedules were challenged. That said, work has begun on Highland Bridge and it looks massive… and impressive.
Lunds & Byerlys grocery store will be the corner anchor in the mixed use building in the corner photo above, around the corner from their current store in the adjacent strip mall. I believe the ‘purple’ building above is the start of Marvella, Presbyterian Homes new senior living community which they say will be opening in 2023.
The Highland Bridge community will include…
- 3,800 housing units, including 20% affordable housing units
- 55+ acres of parks, recreational fields, open spaces and a central water feature
- 10+miles of bike and pedestrian paths
- Largest urban solar array in the Twin Cities
Pulte is developing approximately 300 rowhouses, and the MLS has townhomes listed for sale in the Highland Bridge development. Models are open, and some units are already pending and projected to be completed the end of August 2022. Some units are at foundation stage with projected completion the end of 2022-beginning of 2023, not too late to make finishing choices to customize them to your taste… and some listings not projected to be completed until 2025.
By 2040 this 122-acre patch of dirt is expected to have been transformed into a 40-block new urban village with up to 8,500 new residents and 1,000 new workers in homes, offices and retail spaces. Henry Ford bought this 167-acre site overlooking the Mississippi in 1923 to develop the Ford plant… now, about 100 years later, it is being given new life as a residential community.
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results – shensrud@homesmsp.com
