The Southwest Light Rail Transit, otherwise known as the Metro Green Line Extension, is expanding 14.5 miles from downtown Minneapolis. According to metrocouncil.org the new stops will extend from downtown Minneapolis through St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka, and Eden Prairie.
Royalston Avenue/ Farmers Market station will be the first new stop in the new line. It will be within walking distance of Target Field, the Minneapolis Farmers Market, and the Hennepin Theater District. There’s an industrial backdrop in the surrounding area, which will be an ideal location for commercial and residential development.
The Bassett Creek Valley station will be located close to Van White Memorial Boulevard. There is a lot of potential for the area surrounding it, since it’s 75 acres of undeveloped property. Urban redevelopment is prime and potentially imminent around this location. Nearby is the Walker Art Center, Dunwoody College, Lowry Hill, and the Bryn Mawr neighborhood and athletic fields.
The Bryn Mawr station will be located close to the Cedar Lake Trail, a popular bike route. This station is in a scenic valley and also close to the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes. An elevated pedestrian bridge is proposed be constructed to connect to Penn Ave South and Wayzata Boulevard.
Following a couple of stops on West Lake street, the new line will be making stops in St. Louis Park. The first stop will be the Beltline Boulevard station, which is considered a saturated business location. There’s also numerous parks, shops, and restaurants of the Excelsior & Grand area.
Wooddale avenue station is next in line and has plenty of opportunities featuring residential. There’s nearly 200,000 square feet of retail space located in the area, located close to St. Louis Park High School and other community centers.
Louisiana Avenue station will be expected to be a catalyst to future redevelopment for the area. Located just north of Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital, thousands commute to and from work and this station. The stop will be expected to be busy and provide growth to the neighborhood.
The first stop going westbound into Hopkins is in close proximity to Cargill’s corporate headquarters. The surrounding area has sufficient rental housing and several large employers, and Blake School’s campus is located nearby. The following stops will be in downtown Hopkins and Shady Oak, which will have a park and ride.
The first and only proposed stop going into Minnetonka is the Opus station, which is considered a major regional employment center of many different industries and 12,000 jobs. The next stop will be in Eden Prairie, located near the corporate campus of Optum Health and eventually the site of 6,500 jobs.
The Golden Triangle station is named after the placement within three separate highways which are 169, 212, and interstate 494. This area has roughly 10 million square feet of office and industrial space, and it’s estimated to have over 20,000 people commuting through the greater Golden Triangle territory on a daily basis.
The third stop of the region is the Eden Prairie Town Center station, located near the Eden Prairie shopping center and the intersection of I-494 and highway 212. There’s a small community of multi-family residential housing in the area.
The final stop will be in Eden Prairie at the Southwest station, which will be a reconfiguration of a current stop for Southwest buses. There are many shops and restaurants in the area, as well as a 200-acre Purgatory Creek conservatory.
