Years after Ryan Companies abandoned its previous plans to overhaul the former Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in Arden Hills, the company is asking for a second chance.
Now that the Superfund site’s contaminants have been cleaned up and its buildings demolished, the Minneapolis-based company is one of three well-known local firms vying to lead its redevelopment into a hopeful mix of housing, commercial and retail.
Alatus LLC and Opus Development Company — both based in the Twin Cities — are also in line for the master developer job. Kraus-Anderson submitted a proposal as well, but the company did not advance to later rounds of consideration.
Members of the Joint Development Authority overseeing the TCAAP project will make their selection Monday evening. The board consists of two Ramsey County Commissioners, two city council members from Arden Hills and a local resident.
Ramsey County owns the site — now known as Rice Creek Commons — but Arden Hills created the project’s master plan and will be in charge of zoning.
A team of Ryan representatives made their pitch to the JDA Tuesday about why the firm should land the role.
One of the executives compared the experience of laying out a vision for the mammoth property a second time to Groundhog Day.
“That’s not always a good thing, but it’s delightful to be back, in all sincerity,” said Mark Schoening, senior vice president of retail at Ryan.
He went on to call the roughly 420-acre property conveniently located just 10 minutes from both Twin Cities’ downtowns as a “phenomenal site” that Ryan would like to get going on as “quickly as you allow” should the JDA select it.
Ryan abandoned its previous plans for a mixed-use development on the site back in 2009 due to concerns over cleanup costs and the national economic slump.
With no other interest from the private sector surfacing in the years following, Ramsey County eventually opted to buy the parcel in 2013 for about $30 million in hopes of eventually getting the dormant property back on the tax rolls.
It finished cleaning up the pollutants that had leaked into the site from its former life as a small-arms manufacturing plant in 2015.
If selected, Ryan Company would partner with Lennar Corporation on the project. Lennar is a national residential developer. Opus would partner with Pulte Homes. Alatus told the JDA during its interview last week it would team-up with a variety of residential builders should it be tapped for the job.
The JDA sent out a request for information on the project to developers across the country back in February.
Interested parties were asked to prove in their proposals that their companies had sufficient experience to redevelop the site in a “timely manner,” the financial wherewithal to get the job done and the right development team in place to accomplish the master plan’s goals, said Heather Worthington, Ramsey County’s deputy county manager.
Four companies responded to the solicitation, all from the Twin Cities.
“Basically does your company have those attributes that can help this development succeed… That’s what they will be assessed on,” Worthington said of the choice ahead of JDA members.
None of the three finalists’ proposals will be public until after a company is selected.
Brenda Holden, an Arden Hills city council member on the JDA, said she’s already leaning toward a particular developer but that she has more analysis to do before making a final decision.
“Everybody had good points and everybody I thought had some cons so I really need to sit down and re-examine the city council’s vision that we’ve been talking about for years (for this site) and see which developer will really meet that,” Holden said.
Ramsey County Commissioner Blake Huffman, also on the JDA, said he’s looking for a developer that can offer a diverse spectrum of housing options, has a track record of successfully recruiting commercial tenants and can seamlessly connect the development to the rest of Arden Hills.
“The bottom line is all three are very, very solid and very capable of doing the job,” Huffman said of the companies in the running.
After the JDA selects a developer, city and county staff will begin negotiating a developer agreement, which will eventually circle back to JDA members for approval. The developer will negotiate a purchase agreement for the site with Ramsey County, Worthington said.
Both agreements are expected to be in place by the end of the year. Construction could begin in 2017.
It’s likely the site will be purchased in pieces. The redevelopment is expected to unfold over the next 15 years.