A five- to eight-year project to transform more of Eden Prairie into what it looked like hundreds if not thousands of years ago is taking root just a few yards from Flying Cloud Airport. When the work by Hennepin County in concert with the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) is complete, a parcel of just over two acres will look a lot like the 126 acres nearby: remnant prairie, never cultivated for crops or even turned over with a plow. And, when the combined acreage is a sea of native grasses and wildflowers, Eden Prairie will be home to one of…
Author: Mark Weber
Mark Weber
Mark joined the Eden Prairie News as a reporter in 1979, just five years after its start, and spent the next 34 years in various roles including editor and publisher, as well as general manager of the parent company, Southwest Newspapers. He also published Edible Twin Cities magazine. His encore career was serving the nonprofit Eden Prairie Community Foundation as executive director. Mark is now retired. He and his wife, Roma, have two grown sons and a daughter-in-law, as well as a grandson. They have lived in Eden Prairie since 1984. "I hope the many words I have typed over the years have helped people understand the world around them."
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An Eden Prairie property that has been the subject of several development proposals had a new plan approved for it Tuesday, May 17, by the Eden Prairie City Council. Given preliminary approval for a parcel at 9360 Hennepin Town Road in southeastern Eden Prairie was a Hampton Companies plan to build a 32-unit facility that would provide assisted living and memory care to ailing older adults. Last year, the city approved a project at this location called Morimoto City Homes, which was 16 owner-occupied townhomes. Before that, a plan for a three-story, 52-unit apartment building called The Lofts at Anderson…
About 1 in 8 Eden Prairie businesses, or 12 percent, will not return to the way they did business before the COVID-19 pandemic, a new survey of local businesses has found. Those who say they will operate differently are primarily in the sales/marketing and service categories of business, according to Peter Leatherman of the Morris Leatherman Company, a Minneapolis firm that the City of Eden Prairie uses to conduct a “statistically significant” survey of Eden Prairie businesses every 3-4 years. “This is the key question everyone wants to know: Are we going back to normal with how businesses are operated?”…
Plans to build a 32-unit facility providing assisted living and memory care to ailing older adults cleared a hurdle Monday, April 25, by gaining unanimous approval from the Eden Prairie Planning Commission. The development project now advances to city council review. The proposal by Hampton Companies, using the name Suite Living of Eden Prairie, calls for 20 assisted-living units and 12 memory-care units in a residential-style building at 9360 Hennepin Town Road in southeastern Eden Prairie. That 2.85-acre property has been the subject of several development plans that never reached fruition, the most recent being a project called Morimoto City…
Chick-fil-A, one of the country’s largest fast-food chains, plans to build an Eden Prairie restaurant southwest of the intersection of Flying Cloud Drive and Prairie Center Drive, where other commercial and apartment construction is already underway. The development agreement and construction plans were approved Tuesday, April 19, by the Eden Prairie City Council. They include a late change providing for another drive-through lane based on how business changed during COVID-19. The Atlanta-based company was ranked as America’s fourth-largest restaurant chain, by sales, in 2020. Chick-fil-A’s original plan for the Eden Prairie restaurant had two drive-through lanes narrowing to one. The…
The Eden Prairie Senior Center has completed a remodeling project just as “highly active senior citizens are coming out of the woodwork,” says Sue Bohnsack, supervisor of the city-run facility at 8950 Eden Prairie Road. In the upper-floor construction project, contractors tore down office walls to create what Bohnsack describes as a more open and welcoming social space for older adults who might spontaneously gather in groups of two, three or four. There are plush chairs, a fireplace and a television to make things cozy, and coffee and other refreshments are just across the room. It was created with a…
Eden Prairie City Council members say they have the state’s best city manager in Minnesota and plan to increase his salary, but only to the limit allowed by state law. A total annual pay package of approximately $218,000 was approved for City Manager Rick Getschow by the city council at its March 15 meeting. That’s a salary of $198,286 with the remainder being paid time off put into an account that Getschow would receive upon leaving employment with the City of Eden Prairie. The two-piece package allows the city to follow what is commonly called the Governor’s Salary Cap Law,…
Owners of single-family homes in Eden Prairie this week are learning about increases in their home’s value that are being described as historic and unprecedented. The annual property-value notices are showing that the typical Eden Prairie single-family home increased in value by 19.3% over a 12-month period. And, while the spike in value doesn’t necessarily translate to higher taxes in 2023 – that will depend on budgets and tax levies set next fall by the school district, city, county, and others – it’s an increase that is eye-catching and a reflection of housing demand that is far outstripping supply. Adding…
For longtime Eden Prairie residents Michael and Mai Bui, the Asia Mall being constructed in the shuttered Gander Outdoors building at 12160 Technology Drive is a chance to give their EP friends and neighbors greater exposure to Vietnamese cuisine. The new food hall will include an Eden Prairie version of their Pho Mai restaurant, located in the Dinkytown area of Minneapolis, near the University of Minnesota, their alma mater. They also operate MT Noodles in Brooklyn Park and are soon opening a bubble-tea and mocha-donuts concept, Bober Tea and Mochi Dough. Ultimately, they would love to have all three concepts…
Newly announced delays in completing the Southwest LRT project don’t appear to be discouraging plans to build an Eden Prairie apartment complex near one of the LRT stations. The Eden Prairie City Council on Tuesday, March 1, gave approval to the 425-apartment Blue Stem North project that would be within walking distance of the Golden Triangle LRT Station under construction along West 70th Street in the Golden Triangle industrial area of northeastern Eden Prairie. Its developer said that, while proximity to the LRT station is a factor in the project, it is local demographics as well as the large adjoining…