Instead of the 29-story tower originally proposed to replace the former Nye’s Polonaise Room restaurant and bar in north Minneapolis, a six-story retail and apartment complex is being proposed.
The new plan for the corner of Lourdes Place and East Hennepin Avenue has found favor with a committee from neighboring Our Lady of Lourdes parish, which has been monitoring the development.
“The revised proposal is a positive step forward,” noted a letter from the Our Lady of Lourdes Advisory Committee to its friends, parishioners and neighbors, “and we are gratified the owners and developer responded to the concerns voiced by the neighborhood and parish. While we await more details about the project, we believe the community can get behind a properly designed six-story building.”
Initially fearing construction of a large tower would threaten the foundation of the 1857 church, the parish committee more recently has joined neighborhood advocates who argued that a tower would not fit with the historic nature of the near northside area.
Schafer and Richardson, development partners of Nye’s owners, are to present details of the new proposal at a Sept. 24 joint meeting of the city’s Historic Preservation Committee and the Planning Commission Committee of the Whole at City Hall room 319 at 4:30 p.m. The developer hopes to break ground in the summer of 2016 and open in 2017.
