Join VMWP’s Andrew Faulkner at APA MN

What do you do when your 2015 vision for a transit-oriented R&D center collides with a post-COVID reality?

You pivot gracefully.

This session explores the 2025 Shady Oak Station Area Development Strategy Update, a joint effort by Hopkins and Minnetonka to put an outdated master plan back on track. We’ll discuss how to shift focus toward a vibrant and incremental district shaped by the strengths of its respective communities.

Despite our most fervent hopes, zoning and plans are not magic wands. Because existing small-scale industrial and warehouse uses remain highly profitable, redevelopment at Shady Oak will be episodic. Understanding that light industrial uses will coexist with new mixed-use development, we pragmatically celebrate the area’s grit as an authentic and dynamic alternative to prior visions of a sterile corporate campus. In addition, the strategy prioritizes interim activations like bike-in movies, mobile saunas and night markets to build a public constituency from zero, attract developer interest, and reduce investment risk in an untested submarket. We’ll show how Hopkins extended its downtown public art success to this new frontier to spark a unique sense of place, acknowledging that your city’s “secret sauce” for reinvestment will look different. If your community is holding on to development dreams deferred, this session will show you how to wake up, embrace your strengths, and create your own opportunity.