Politics & Government

Eagan Council Approves Preliminary Design for $19 Million Outlet Mall Parking Ramp

The parking ramp would be built adjacent to Paragon Outlets' planned, 440,000-square-foot outlet mall in Eagan's Cedar Grove neighborhood.

Eagan city officials unveiled the preliminary designs for a new, $19 million parking ramp on Tuesday, amid debate on whether the ramp should include two levels—as originally planned—or three levels for greater parking volume.

The ramp, which will be built in tandem with the Paragon outlet mall project in Eagan's Cedar Grove Redevelopment Area, would provide parking for the 440,000-square-foot mall and other commercial developments built in the area.

In the end, the Eagan City Council approved a preliminary, two-level concept plan—with the ability to add a third level later, if needed. A formal version of the parking ramp design will likely be presented at the Eagan Planning Commission's April 17 meeting, and could come back to the council in June for approval.

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The structure is the product of a partnership between the Eagan Economic Development Authority, which is comprised by Eagan council members, and Baltimore, Md.-based Paragon Outlets, the developer behind the outlet mall. While the developer originally preferred surface parking, the EDA advocated for a parking ramp—which would open up more room for peripheral developments to be built around the outlet mall site.

As part of the agreement, Paragon pledged to provide $4.23 million to the construction of the ramp, while the remaining $15 million will be paid by the EDA using Tax Increment Financing funds.

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The ramp will likely have 1,550 stalls, two elevators and several covered stairways for pedestrian access, according to preliminary designs. It will be situated between the mall development to the north and Cedar Grove Parkway to the south.

Click on the PDFs attached to this article to view a map of the site.

Roughly 1,100 of the stalls in the planned ramp would be used by the mall, with the remaining several hundred stalls serving peripheral commercial lots built adjacent to the ramp site.

It was the number of parking spots reserved for the mall that caught Mayor Mike Maguire's eye during the Tuesday council meeting.

"It's a bit surprising to me that all we get out of this structure is 500 spots that aren’t already needed by the Paragon development," said Maguire, who suggested the city should consider adding a third level onto the preliminary designs for additional stalls.

But the mayor eventually relented after Eagan City Councilor Paul Bakken pointed out that a third level may make the ramp "prohibitively expensive".

Building a third level without knowing what would be constructed on the sites around the outlet mall would also limit the city's flexibility when it comes to those peripheral developments, Bakken added.

Construction on the outlet mall is expected to begin this spring and wrap up late in 2014. Once built, the parking ramp would be owned and operated by the Eagan EDA.

The ramp was designed by RSP Architects working in conjunction with SRF Consulting.


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