LOFTS ON MAINSTREET INFLUENCES THE LONG RANGE VISION OF HOPKINS

Hopkins City Council Looks to Pass New Design Guidelines Based on Success of Lofts Development

HOPKINS — The success of the stylish $11.6 million Lofts on Mainstreet represents the first development to follow voluntary design guidelines that attempt to make the city’s downtown a more attractive for housing and retail in the future.

Located between Seventh and Eighth streets in downtown Hopkins, the 48-unit condominium complex represents the kind of design breakthrough the city hoped for when it first chose Bloomington-based Cornerstone Group to create the development. The city sought a developer willing to build a dense, appealing housing project above retail stores that would fit into the downtown’s small town character and historic appearance.

Kersten Elverum, housing coordinator for the city, said Cornerstone followed a voluntary set of design guidelines so well the city is now considering making some of guidelines law. The Lofts on Mainstreet project used a brick exterior to match other downtown buildings, built retail with large windows at the street level to create a welcoming environment for pedestrians and added ornamental lighting and historic-minded signage.

The Lofts on Mainstreet “definitely influenced our desire to make the guidelines universal for all downtown businesses,” says Elverum. “Our thinking is some of the guidelines will remain as guidelines, which simply means we want and strongly encourage developers to adhere to them. Other parts of the guidelines will become ‘standards’ which will we will then be able to enforce.”

The kind of design guidelines now under review by the city council regulate lighting, signnage, franchise architecture and materials used in buildings. If other developers build with the sensitivity of Cornerstone, she believes, the downtown of Hopkins will grow while maintaining a distinctive small town architectural look distinguishing it from surrounding suburbs.

Parts of the guidelines could become law later this year.

The Lofts on Mainstreet’s success — only three units remain to be sold — solidifies another focus of the suburban community’s long range vision. “We look at the Lofts to anchor the east end of downtown and we feel the project will do that,” said Elverum. “We’re also focused on densely developed housing in the long range plan of the city which will support the downtown district. This project is pushing us a step further in that direction with owner-occupied housing on a dense scale that will hope will spread to other parts of downtown.”

Colleen Carey, founder and chief executive officer of Bloomington-based Cornerstone Group, lauded the city council’s design guidelines. They help developers understand in detail what they city is trying to achieve in a particular neighborhood, she said. On the other hand, good design guidelines have just enough flexibility to allow developers a way to suggest improvements or bargain for minor changes.

“Hopkins has an excellent of guidelines which reflect what the downtown looks like and how they want to maintain that character in the future,” she said. “They’re open to suggestion but they have a great concept of what they want. It’s a concept Cornerstone strives for in every development we do — to create appealing, dense housing combined with retail to create walkable, visually appealing neighborhoods.”

The Lofts on Mainstreet

While the Lofts exterior may have influenced the city council its interior design certainly represents a change from the usual housing suburban housing projects in a variety of ways. The units offer nine foot ceilings, large windows, exposed brick walls and open floor plans similar to the kind of lofts often found in older warehouse buildings or in new construction in downtown areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul, says Carey.

Units range in size from 700 to 1,700 square feet and from $140,000 to around $350,000 in price. Coldwell Banker Burnet sells the units.

The condominiums boast interesting features. Some have raised “Frasier” floors — of the sort seen on the long-running television series — which give visitors and owners a perch from which view their living and kitchen areas. Moreover, units have sliding walls opening on to living rooms, creating a sense of spaciousness important, in particular, in smaller units.

“I can’t think of too many condominiums in the Twin Cities that offering sliding walls or this kind of raised entryway,” says Carey. “We went out on a small limb in attempting to make these units more stylized, more contemporary than others we’ve seen or done. That fact we did them in the suburbs and they quickly found buyers is a testament to the great design of DJR Architects.”

The design was highlighted in an article on interior trends in the Urban Land Institute’s “Multifamily Trends” magazine, the nation’s leading authority in trends in multifamily housing sector. The magazine wrote that the units are “one way to make multifamily housing affordable and hip — affordable because the units are small, and hip because of their loft-based design.”

Carey believes that kind of uniqueness helped sell units, but so did the inviting atmosphere of downtown Hopkins, where residents will be able to walk to restaurants, events and stores. “To have this kind of design we needed the project to be in a downtown or urban setting,” she said. “They would never work in a cornfield development.”

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MARKETPLACE LOFTS FUELS CONTINUING RENAISSANCE OF DOWNTOWN HOPKINS

Mix of Condos and Retail Adds Life to Mainstreet

HOPKINS — City officials believe the growing success of Marketplace Lofts on Mainstreet will fuel the continuing renaissance of the suburb’s historic downtown.

Developed by Cornerstone Group, Inc., the $11.6 million project contains 48 loft-style condominiums built above 17,000 square feet of street-level retail space between Seventh and Eighth streets in downtown Hopkins.

“Cornerstone and its founder, Colleen Carey, came to us with a unique design that fits into our vision for the city and the fact Carey managed to sell 45 of the 48 units before even finishing the building is a testament to her skill and to the appeal of Hopkins,” says Steve Mielke, city manager. “With the housing nearly all sold, we’re now partnering with Cornerstone to move more retail stores into the city.”

The project plays into Hopkins’ own vision of its future in several ways. The city wants to continue adding new dense multi-family housing in and around the downtown area, he said, to build up the neighborhood’s population. Secondly, the city wanted a strong anchor on the east end of downtown to draw residents and visitors – the west end boasts Mann Hopkins 6 movie theater and the Hopkins Center For the Arts.

Third, the project creates attractive retail space for the kind of tenants the city wants to add to its downtown mix -- restaurants, bakeries, arts-crafts themed services, interior furnishings, a natural food store, a cookware outlet and other businesses, he said. And fourth, the guidelines the city established for the Marketplace Lofts worked so well it plans to apply them to all future projects and to existing businesses in the downtown area.

As Mielke describes it, the housing helps support retail establishments and creates a point of differentiation for Hopkins from other nearby suburbs. Blessed with a historic downtown, Hopkins wants to continue adding retail and other attractions to draw visitors from other suburbs looking for pleasant place where they can shop, eat and see a show in a more urban milieu, he said.

“We like what Stillwater has done with its downtown, and what 50th and France in Edina has become,” said Mielke. “We hope to offer visitors something like these communities but also something uniquely in line with what Hopkins is all about.”

The downtown now has an intriguing mix of retailers, ranging from gift and appliance stores to restaurants and hobby shops. The city boasts 13 antique stores, nearly as many as Stillwater, the antiquing center of the Twin Cities. “We have a nice selection of stores now but we’re anxious to broaden the scope of our retail,” says Mielke.

Hopkins is in the forefront of a suburban downtown movement in the Twin Cities. New downtowns have been created recently in St. Louis Park and Maple Grove, another is under construction in Burnsville. Roseville and Lakeville both have plans to develop a traditional downtown underway.

“We’re on the leading edge of this boom of suburban downtowns but we have the distinct advantage of having had a downtown to work with, we don’t have to create anything,” said Mielke. “We’re lucky. We have what other suburbs want. We don’t have to construct anything from the ground up. Our challenge is to preserve what we have and add to it with new housing and retail projects such as Marketplace Lofts.”

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MARKETPLACE LOFTS FUELS CONTINUING RENAISSANCE OF DOWNTOWN HOPKINS

Mix of Condos and Retail Adds Life to Mainstreet

HOPKINS–City officials believe the growing success of Marketplace Lofts on Mainstreet will fuel the continuing renaissance of the suburb’s historic downtown.

Developed by Cornerstone Group, Inc., the $11.6 million project contains 48 loft-style condominiums built above 17,000 square feet of street-level retail space between Seventh and Eighth streets in downtown Hopkins.

“Cornerstone and its founder, Colleen Carey, came to us with a unique design that fits into our vision for the city and the fact Carey managed to sell 45 of the 48 units before even finishing the building is a testament to her skill and to the appeal of Hopkins,” says Steve Mielke, city manager. “With the housing nearly all sold, we’re now partnering with Cornerstone to move more retail stores into the city.”

The project plays into Hopkins’ own vision of its future in several ways. The city wants to continue adding new dense multi-family housing in and around the downtown area, he said, to build up the neighborhood’s population. Secondly, the city wanted a strong anchor on the east end of downtown to draw residents and visitors – the west end boasts Mann Hopkins 6 movie theater and the Hopkins Center For the Arts.

Third, the project creates attractive retail space for the kind of tenants the city wants to add to its downtown mix -- restaurants, bakeries, arts-crafts themed services, interior furnishings, a natural food store, a cookware outlet and other businesses, he said. And fourth, the guidelines the city established for the Marketplace Lofts worked so well it plans to apply them to all future projects and to existing businesses in the downtown area.

As Mielke describes it, the housing helps support retail establishments and creates a point of differentiation for Hopkins from other nearby suburbs. Blessed with a historic downtown, Hopkins wants to continue adding retail and other attractions to draw visitors from other suburbs looking for pleasant place where they can shop, eat and see a show in a more urban milieu, he said.

“We like what Stillwater has done with its downtown, and what 50th and France in Edina has become,” said Mielke. “We hope to offer visitors something like these communities but also something uniquely in line with what Hopkins is all about.”

The downtown now has an intriguing mix of retailers, ranging from gift and appliance stores to restaurants and hobby shops. The city boasts 13 antique stores, nearly as many as Stillwater, the antiquing center of the Twin Cities. “We have a nice selection of stores now but we’re anxious to broaden the scope of our retail,” says Mielke.

Hopkins is in the forefront of a suburban downtown movement in the Twin Cities. New downtowns have been created recently in St. Louis Park and Maple Grove, another is under construction in Burnsville. Roseville and Lakeville both have plans to develop a traditional downtown underway.

“We’re on the leading edge of this boom of suburban downtowns but we have the distinct advantage of having had a downtown to work with, we don’t have to create anything,” said Mielke. “We’re lucky. We have what other suburbs want. We don’t have to construct anything from the ground up. Our challenge is to preserve what we have and add to it with new housing and retail projects such as Marketplace Lofts.”

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Urban Lofts In the Suburbs
Cornerstone Helps Revitalize Downtown Hopkins

Hopkins — Downtown Hopkins is among the best preserved retail centers in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. Graced by a wide boulevard, well-tended buildings and a wide selection of retail shops ranging from antique stores to a six screen movie theater, the city’s Main Street bustles with activity day and night.

It wasn’t always this way. During the 1970s young car cruisers took over Main Street and the city council, at wit’s end, removed parking and created an automobile and pedestrian mall. The strategy backfired as businesses closed shop and headed elsewhere. By 1990 the city council decided to return on-street parking and restore the former street pattern.

Businesses slowly returned to Main Street. The street really began flourishing, however, in 1997 after the opening of the Hopkins Center for the Arts and, across the street, the Mann Hopkins Cinema 6. Even the alternative press noticed the transformation.

Selecting Hopkins in 2002 as having the “Best Suburban Downtown,” the staff of City Pages wrote: “This small municipality surrounded by Edina, St. Louis Park, and Minnetonka enjoys a distinct advantage over many first-and-second tier suburbs that are angling to cultivate the downtown aesthetic: Hopkins was an honest-to-goodness small town — with a real Main Street — before it morphed into a suburb.”

Building on Main Street’s growing success, the Hopkins city government began acquiring a parcel between Seventh and Eighth avenues housing an aging retail center and a parking lot. When Hopkins put out the word to developers that it wanted someone to come in with a housing plan, the Cornerstone Group won the competition with a proposal focusing on constructing contemporary urban lofts above retail space, a concept more familiar in downtown Minneapolis than the western suburbs.

Hopkins city manager Steve Mielke told the Star Tribune the reason for Cornerstone’s selection: “The thing that struck the council about them was there creativity.”

Mielke has also pointed out the kind of density inherent in the 46-unit project, dubbed “Marketplace Lofts,” is consistent with Hopkins itself, an older, inner ring suburb as densely populated as Minneapolis. Moreover, the city saw great success when Oaks on Mainstreet opened in 1998 and quickly sold out 66 townhouses.

Developing in cities and suburbs is never easy but Hopkins did all it could to help Cornerstone. The city chipped in by acquiring the land and giving it to Cornerstone for free. The Metropolitan Council provided a $700,000 livable communities grant to the developer. The result will be a parcel generating much more in tax revenue than the former the buildings replaced, says Colleen Carey, founder and chief executive officer of Bloomington-based Cornerstone.

“We see ourselves as partners with communities,” she says. “We work closely with city managers and council members in a partnership to improve their communities while striving to build quality housing for affordable prices.”

Still, questions remain. Urban lofts in...Hopkins? At prices ranging from $140,000 to $300,000 for 700 to 1,700 square feet, a bit more than for similar units in Oaks on Mainstreet, not to mention individual houses in the city? Not a problem, say Cornerstone officials.

“We got phone calls off the bat from prospective tenants even before we broke ground,” says Carey. “Some folks were empty nesters who lived in the community and wanted to move out of their homes but stay in Hopkins. Others were young people who liked the look and feel of lofts but didn’t want to have to move to downtown Minneapolis to live in one. And these units cost much less than what you’d pay in downtown Minneapolis or on the riverfront.”

Only three units remained unsold just six months after Cornerstone began marketing the project. The sales confirmed Carey’s belief that an urban aesthetic in a suburban milieu turned out to have plenty of buyers Another16,000 feet of retail space remains available on the ground floor she’s working hard to lease now in a tough economic climate for retail. The project’s success may lead Cornerstone to begin plans to develop an adjoining property for housing.

Part of the Marketplace Lofts’ appeal comes from the unique design of units. Many have raised “Frasier floors” leading into a sunken living room area, nine foot ceilings, large windows and outdoor terraces. While the Frasier floor may not be quite the same as stepping the television character’s Seattle condominium, the entrance offers tenants a perch from where they can oversee the living room and kitchen areas.

Bedrooms even have sliding doors which open into living rooms, creating a greater sense of space and openness. “Once people saw what we were offering they loved it,” she says. “Everyone understood the Frasier floor concept and liked the idea of a movable wall. This is not your typical shoebox-like unit common in older developments, these are condos with built-in character. ”

The other attraction comes from the project’s shared amenities and location. Common areas include a grilling deck, storage space, exercise room, community room, central lobby and outdoor plaza. Tenants, meanwhile, can walk to restaurants, theaters and stores in downtown Hopkins. Bus lines connecting to other suburbs and Minneapolis run near Main Street. And a recreational trail is only a few blocks away.

Carey’s no stranger to working in urban environments. Cornerstone is renovating the Northern Lofts in downtown St. Paul and worked on the rehabilitation of Cedar Square West in Minneapolis. Cornerstone now has a new urbanist project in Richfield at 76th and Lyndale.

“We don’t do cornfield developments,” she says with a laugh. “We like working in urban locales and creating attractive, dense developments with interesting designs. We help revitalize urban neighborhoods like Main Street in Hopkins and add to their population and their appeal.”

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Colleen Carey and The Cornerstone Group, Inc.
Founder and chief executive officer, Cornerstone Group, Bloomington, MN

Colleen Carey brings 17 years of experience in the field of real estate development and finance to The Cornerstone Group, Inc. Carey founded Cornerstone Group in 1993 with the idea of concentrating on interesting development projects in built-up urban areas in the Twin Cities.

Cornerstone works in a uniquely collaborative way, bringing together innovative architects and rehabilitation experts to complete projects financed by an impressive range of sources ranging for banks and foundations to government sources and housing funds. Carey has experience dealing with public/government funding, tax-exempt bond issues and credit enhancement vehicles.

Many of Carey’s projects contain affordable and senior housing units. Carey and her staff often bring together funding sources for projects mixing market rate and subsidized units affordable to a wide range of income levels. While Carey has done three major projects in St. Paul, she’s also worked in several suburbs, among them Hopkins, Maplewood, Minnetonka and Plymouth.

Some of Carey’s recent projects are the Lofts on Mainstreet in Hopkins, seen as an emblematic example of that suburb’s continuing renaissance, and the recent renovation of the James J. Hill Office Building, and now a 53 unit condo complex called the Great Northern Lofts. The Business Journal chose the project as the 2002 winner in the category of Redevelopment/Extensive Renovation–Residential.

Past projects Carey has done include Cathedral Hill Homes in St. Paul, a former crime-ridden project now stunningly rehabilitated into affordable housing; Minnetonka Mills Townhouses in Minnetonka; Columbine Townhouses in Eden Prairie; Bluff Park Homes on the West Side of St. Paul and Lakeview Commons in Plymouth. All of these projects have received industry awards.

Prior to establishing The Cornerstone Group, Ms. Carey served for seven years as the Executive Director of Twin Cities Housing Development Corporation, during which time the organization participated as a developer in over $130 million of housing developments with projects ranging in size from five units to 1,300 units. She was also in charge of raising nearly $45 million in private equity investments through the sale of low-income housing tax credits.

Carey has completed a number of historic restorations, several commercial developments, and for-sale housing projects in addition to her extensive multifamily rental development experience.

Carey holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin with a major in Real Estate Development and Investment Analysis. She is a licensed Minnesota real estate broker, a current member and past board member of the Minnesota MultiHousing Association, and the National Leased Housing Association. In addition, she has served on the Board of Directors of The Ripley Foundation and the Harriet Tubman Center and is currently the Board Chair of the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis.