Communities development
NEW PROJECTS IN THE NORTHEAST METRO
2025 will be a very busy year for both development and redevelopment projects throughout the Northeast Metro. White Bear Lake, Shoreview, Vadnais Heights, Maplewood and Ramsey County all have projects underway.
WHITE BEAR LAKE
The most visible development projects underway in White Bear Lake can be found along the County Road E corridor, which is a major priority area for several cities in the northeast metro. At the intersection of County Road E and Bellaire Avenue, a former gas station has been demolished, and construction of nine townhomes is underway.
“ The City received three grants to help pay for cleanup of the site: the Tax-based Revitalization Account grant( TBRA) from the Met Council, and two grants from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. It’ s exciting to have some new row-home style townhomes coming to the City. It’ s a little bit different than the housing stock we currently have available,” said Tracy Shimek, Housing & Economic Development Coordinator for the City of White Bear Lake.
The townhomes aren’ t the only new housing becoming available in the city. In March 2024, The Lochner apartments, located at 3600 Hoffman Road, began welcoming residents. The Lochner’ s sister property, The Barnum, which is located at 1711 County Road E East, began welcoming residents in Spring 2021. Together, they bring more than 400 new units of housing to the city.
Housing isn’ t all that’ s new on the corridor. New tenants have moved into the Wildwood Shopping Mall, which is near the intersection of County Road E and Century Avenue. There is a new daycare there, a new event center called Elegance Venue, and a new business called Golf Nerd, which offers stateof-the-art technology people can use to improve their swing. The company also offers coaching and lessons, and organizes indoor league play.
Nearby, Little Village Pub, located at 2670 Co Rd E East, is expanding its space.
“ We’ re really excited to see the level of investment there. It’ s kind of a more challenging market to see people investing, and we’ re hoping to be able to build on the recent momentum,” said Shimek, who added that another significant area to look at is Downtown White Bear Lake.
A recently completed Mobility Study makes several recommendations about public improvement projects that need to be considered during upcoming and future pavement reconstruction projects. No decisions have been made yet by the City Council on which project aspects to pursue, but Shimek anticipates the first phase of the project to be the reconstruction of Downtown White Bear Lake’ s public parking lots, followed by street and sidewalk reconstruction south of 4th Street.
“ The last time that area had a street reconstruction was in the 1970s,” said Shimek.“ We’ re excited about improving that area.”
16 Northeast Metro Business