Kandiyohi SWCD, Uptown Willmar owner to pursue grant funds for stormwater improvements to mall parking lot

Jun. 30—WILLMAR

— The condition of the

Uptown Willmar

parking lot has risen to the top as a major concern for those who do not want to relocate the Willmar City Hall and Community Center to a renovated JCPenney building in the mall.

It is no secret that the parking lot is bad and continues to deteriorate. There has been some work done to patch some of the potholes, but that is simply a Band-Aid — the entire parking lot needs to be reconstructed.

The reconstruction of a parking lot the size of Uptown Willmar's is a costly undertaking — potentially as much as $10 million according to one estimate. A project of this size would likely take place in phases with the assistance of state or federal grants, including up to $1.5 million being pursued this summer that would help address stormwater issues.

There is an opportunity for mall owner

RockStep Capital

to collaborate with the

Kandiyohi County Soil and Water Conservation District

to make improvements that will add green space and help to capture stormwater runoff and filter out pollutants before the stormwater enters waterways downstream, one of which is the impaired South Fork of the Crow River.

"What we're doing is trying to enlighten the community on ways that we can better the parking lot with the resources that we found, which is rain gardens and these types of things," said Uptown Willmar General Manager Tim Jackson. "It's a positive story; it's a community-driven story. We want to make the property look better and nicer and more accessible — that's what our goal is."

A news story published in the

Star Tribune in July 2022 about the impaired waters of the South Fork of the Crow River briefly explained steps that Kandiyohi County

has taken to restore Grass Lake, a large drained prairie wetland in the headwater areas of the south fork.

Kandiyohi County drainage manager Loren Engelby told the Star Tribune that the restored lake now holds and filters farm drainage and stormwater from Willmar before it enters the South Fork of the Crow River.

The article goes on to state, "But you could argue that the river's true source is the old Kandi Mall (Uptown Willmar) parking lot in Willmar," said DNR wildlife supervisor Cory Netland, who works in the area. "The mall was built over a cow pasture made from a drained wetland, and the parking lot drains into a large ditch that runs to Grass Lake."

Kandiyohi Soil and Water Conservation District Manager Margaret Johnson acknowledged the concerns about stormwater runoff from the Uptown Willmar parking lot.

"I did visit with (RockStep Capital) about (it); what makes this project very enticing is that we're the headwaters here. We do have a problem with water quality downstream, so just focusing on what we do — we only work with voluntary landowners," Johnson said about a potential collaboration.

She noted that as cities grow, native forests and prairies are replaced with impervious surfaces such as pavement and rooftops, causing stormwater polluted with fertilizers, oil, pesticides, bacteria and other things to rush down storm drains and ditches — unfiltered and untreated — into streams, rivers and lakes.

Currently, RockStep Capital and Kandiyohi SWCD are contracting with

Barr Engineering

to create a feasibility study that is expected to be completed sometime in July. The study will then be used to apply for an August round of competitive grants, which could help fund a portion of the reconstruction of the Uptown Willmar parking lot and make improvements that will help to capture and filter stormwater before it hits downstream rivers and lakes.

"Even to get into the ballgame or get your ticket to the prom in this deal, to get a chance to get those grants, it's $52,000," Dion Warne of Willmar Ten Investors told the Willmar City Council on May 15, noting an engineering firm has to design the stormwater improvements. "Margaret is so excited about this that Kandiyohi Soil and Water is paying almost half the fee to get that study done, with RockStep paying the other half."

Andy Weiner, president of RockStep Capital, has pledged to commit $500,000 of any proceeds from the sale of the JCPenney building toward parking lot repairs, an amount that could become $2 million if grants to make stormwater improvements are successfully acquired.

However, with construction costs what they currently are, $2 million will not go very far and improvements may have to be made in phases. Priority areas will be those areas of the mall that are currently occupied and generate the most traffic — for example, around Kohl's and Harbor Freight on the eastern and southern sides of Uptown Willmar.

At a June 12 planning meeting, during which representatives from Barr Engineering and the SWCD, city staff and Jackson discussed the opportunities and constraints for potential improvements for the parking lot, City Administrator Leslie Valiant was asked if there was an appetite for the city to become a partner in the project.

Valiant explained that the Willmar local option sales tax funds that have been appropriated for stormwater improvements in the city are being focused on areas of the city that have issues with flooding during rain events.

"This would be a much easier project if the city was on board with coming into this location," Jackson commented after the meeting, "It gives you some exposure. ... 'Hey, this mall is being revitalized because the city chose to come here. And now, with that, we can do this.'" Jackson noted that Valiant indicated the parking lot needs to be reconstructed whether or not the city relocates to the JCPenney building.

If the city does choose to relocate the city hall and community center to a renovated JCPenney building, three to four acres of parking lot in that area would be reconstructed during the renovation.

BKV Group's proposal includes repaving the area and the addition of trees and some curb and gutter to delineate the city hall and community center parking lots from the remaining Uptown Willmar parking lot, but no features to help filter stormwater.

"The (stormwater) retention area is actually off to the east. There's a larger retention area that can accommodate the whole site," Bruce Schwartzmann of BKV Group told the

Willmar City Council during a presentation June 12

. "There's really not a lot of need for what we consider rain gardens and things like that at the site — that would be something purely if the city were interested in."

Willmar Ten Investors' proposal for the city hall and community center at JCPenney

included the incorporation of rain gardens into the reconstructed parking lot to help filter pollutants from stormwater runoff.

It is estimated that the Uptown Willmar parking lot is approximately 27 acres. City engineer Jared Voge of Bolton & Menk provided a very rough estimate that it would cost $6.5 million to $10.4 million to reconstruct the Uptown Willmar parking lot — and that does not include adding curb and gutter or features that will improve the stormwater runoff. He based the estimate on the pricing obtained for city parking lot improvements in the last few years.

It should be noted that the estimated taxable market value of the mall property is approximately $7 million, according to the

Kandiyohi County geographic information system

— to reconstruct the parking lot, which generates zero revenue, would cost more than the value of Uptown Willmar.

While there are many in the community who speak about their belief that fixing the parking lot should be a priority for RockStep Capital, the company is more focused on building out tenant spaces to generate more revenue in order to be able to fix the parking lot, according to Jackson.

"Getting tenants in here that are fixing the parking lot in their area is more feasible, because we're actually getting income and we're fixing a problem," he said, noting RockStep Capital has to be strategic with how it uses funds to attract businesses to Uptown Willmar.

"Redoing a parking lot is mall money out, there's no money in," he continued. "We're not guaranteed that somebody's going to come in here. I think that the biggest misconception is, 'Oh, just fix the parking lot.' Yes, we always like that, but it's not business savvy to do that without maybe trying to use these funds that we can get from the watershed ... that's how we would do it, make it more feasible to do it."

In 2012, Barr Engineering assisted Maplewood Mall in completing a project

similar to what is being considered at Uptown Willmar. Partners for that project included mall owner Simon Property Group, the city of Maplewood and Ramsey County, according to the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District website.

Maplewood Mall has a 35-acre parking lot and it cost $6.5 million to complete its project a decade ago. Funding sources for the project included federal and state clean water and pollution control grants, a loan from a state revolving fund and a budget levy.

The four-year, multi-phase project included a number of features that capture and filter 67% of the rainwater at the mall, cleaning 20 million gallons of stormwater each year. Prior to the project, only 3% of rainwater was captured and filtered.

The project included the construction of 55 rain gardens (19 with enhanced sand filters), 6,733 square feet of permeable pavers, one mile of tree trenches and 354 trees.