[Urbannizer]

Minneapolis funeral home demolished, but 40-story condo tower still on hold

Oct 3, 2017

The Washburn-McReavy funeral home in the East Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis has been reduced to rubble after developer Alatus LLC finally cleared one hurdle in its quest to build a 40-story condo tower on the site.

Minneapolis-based Alatus has been plotting the project for two years, but a group of neighbors has blocked demolition and construction with a legal appeal that says a tower of such height doesn’t fit into a historic district, in this case the St. Anthony Falls Historic District.

The 87-year-old funeral home at 200 Central Ave. SE. needed to come down before construction of the tower could begin. That demolition couldn’t happen during the appeals process until Friday, when the group called Neighbors for East Bank Livability wasn’t able to come up with a $4.6 million security bond by its deadline. By 4 p.m. Friday, wrecking crews were on site tearing down the building.

“The trial judge entered a new order and revised the bond amount upward to a point where our clients could not afford to post that kind of security,” said Gary Van Cleave, an attorney for Minneapolis-based Larkin Hoffman who is representing the group.

Even with the funeral home gone, Alatus doesn’t anticipate breaking ground on the 214-unit condo building until May because the appeal is still pending before the Minnesota Court of Appeals and could take months longer to resolve, said Alatus Development Director Chris Osmundson. Construction will take two years, though some units could be ready in 18 months.