What is actually being built behind the fencing at Thompson Avenue and Robert Street? In September, site work began on the 150 Thompson redevelopment, almost seven years after the West St. Paul YMCA closed. The West St. Paul Reader reported that the 11-acre site will hold apartments, townhouses, a rehabbed retail building with a sit-down restaurant, and a new city park.
The park is the part most neighbors will actually use, and it isn't fixed yet. Its schematic design is due at the end of October. What ends up in it depends less on the early concept drawings and more on a tight site, a funding gap, and what residents asked for along the way.
Seven years on one corner
Many people know the lot as the place where nothing happened for a long time. The full history explains why the city ended up owning the land and could insist on a public park there.
| When | What happened at 150 Thompson |
|---|---|
| Late 2018 | Hy-Vee signs a purchase agreement with the YMCA; the sale closes in early 2019 |
| October 2019 | The original YMCA building closes |
| 2020 | The YMCA building is demolished |
| April 2022 | Hy-Vee drops its redevelopment plans |
| December 2022 | The city buys the former Hy-Vee/YMCA land to control what gets built |
| May 2023 | The state approves tax increment financing, which had been holding things up |
| November 2023 | Public open house on early site plans |
| September 2026 | Site work begins |
The Reader's reporting says the city's purchase is what guaranteed public space and a sit-down restaurant would be part of the deal.
The plan runs south to Crawford Drive and west to Robert Street, and it takes in the former AutoZone building. It calls for 457 market-rate apartments in two five-story buildings and 19 rental townhouses that finish the existing townhouse development on Crawford Drive. The 7,100-square-foot AutoZone building will be rehabbed for a sit-down restaurant and other retail. As of the September report, no restaurant had been named. Total project cost is about $145 million, and the city approved nearly $20 million in tax increment financing across two phases.
The schedule has slipped about a year. Projected dates now put the retail and townhomes at the end of 2027, the first apartment building in 2028, and the second building after that, possibly finishing by 2030. City Manager Nate Burkett hopes the park will be done by summer 2028.
The park is in its most flexible stage, and that stage is ending
The city lays out the process in a September 8 memo to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee from Eric Weiss, the city's Director of Parks and Recreation. The lead design consultant is Damon Farber, working with U+B Architects. The work is divided into phases:
- Visioning and Concept, 2023 to 2026. This phase is complete.
- Schematic Design, June to October 2026. This covers site design, civil engineering, architecture and a preliminary cost estimate. It's the current phase.
- Design Development, November 2026 to early January 2027. This produces preliminary specifications and a more detailed cost estimate.
The memo is direct about what this stage means:
"Changes are inexpensive now and expensive later."
It also states the rule that will shape the final park: "Every element in the plan carries a cost. Adding one thing usually means reducing or removing another or needing additional funding." The preliminary cost estimate was due at the end of September or early October. The city's fall input schedule included a Night Market pop-up, an online survey from September 16 to October 2, a community open house on September 29, and an engagement summary on October 8. All of that was meant to feed a schematic design package finished by the end of October.
What the site allows, and what has already moved
The concept presented to the advisory committee this fall included an amphitheater with an open lawn for events, a picnic shelter, a play area, an urban beach, a splash feature and restrooms. It places the park in the southeast corner of the site, overlooking the pond, on the River to River Greenway trail with the library nearby.
The ground limits how much of that fits. The city memo calls the park "relatively small at just over 2 acres." It lists topography, neighboring uses and underground utilities "which run through the middle of the park" as limits on the design.
Since the concept plan, the design team and staff have already recommended four changes:
- Moving the bandshell to a different spot
- Adding a maintenance building
- Adding parking on the east lot
- Separating play areas by age
Two of those four, the maintenance building and the parking, are support features that take up space and money in a park of just over two acres. The workshop agenda shows how the remaining choices are grouped: water, beach and stormwater features; play, teen and hillside areas; and gathering, performance and building areas. A separate session covered "phasing, priorities and cost trade-offs."
What residents asked for the first time around
The 2026 survey wasn't the first time the city asked. At the November 2023 open house on the early redevelopment plans, residents filled out an in-person survey, and the city posted the results. The ranked design principles were natural, safe, accessible, year-round, place to connect, and active.
Here is how the most popular 2023 amenities compare with the features named in the September 2026 concept:
| Top 2023 requests | Named in the September 2026 concept? |
|---|---|
| Bathrooms | Yes, restrooms are listed |
| Year-round landscaping | Not named |
| Quiet walkways | Not named |
| Gardens | Not named |
| Creative lighting | Not named |
The same 2023 sheet lists "walkable/bikeable" and "summer to winter conversion" among the ideas residents liked. Comments included "Lots of trees. More, more, more trees," "Walkability, walkability, walkability," "Need more parking," and a request for a "small or local restaurant, ice cream shop, or coffee."
Some of that 2023 feedback shows up in the current plan. The east-lot parking addresses the parking comment, and the rehabbed AutoZone building is set aside for a sit-down restaurant. On trees, the Reader reports that construction will remove 156 quality trees and replace them with at least 217 new ones.
The park still has no name. In 2023, residents found "The Yard," "The Porch" and "The Deck" too folksy. They also thought "Thompson Oaks" was too easy to confuse with Thompson County Park, and some suggested Thompson Commons or Thompson Square. Three years later, the city's project page still calls it 150 Thompson Park.
Who pays for the rest
The final design will come down to money. When the City Council approved the project last December, the park had a funding gap of $5 million to $7 million. Since then, the state has offered $1 million. Burkett has proposed covering the rest from several sources, but as of the September report the Council had not officially approved that plan.
The latest sign of the city's direction came at the October 13 Open Council Work Session. According to the West St. Paul Reader's council recap, staff described a new approach to bonding. It would front-load projects so the work gets done "sooner, before costs rise," and add new projects to a rolling schedule as old bonds expire. The recap says this approach would let the city pay for the park at 150 Thompson and a future fire and police station building. This was a work-session discussion, not a vote. The same session lowered the planned 2027 property tax levy increase to 6.25%, with the final budget set for approval in December.
Until a funding plan is approved, the estimates and phasing choices in the design package will decide whether the beach, the splash feature or the larger bandshell are built with the first phase, built later, or dropped.
What's nearby while the park gets built
The park's spot on the River to River Greenway connects it to places that are already open. Dakota County's River to River Greenway page lists Garlough and Marthaler parks, the Robert Street corridor, Thompson Oaks and Thompson County Park among the destinations along the route.
Thompson County Park already has some of what residents asked for in 2023. The Pollinator Promenade sensory garden trail opened there in June, per the West St. Paul Reader. The walking path sits just south of Thompson Lake, crosses the main path and follows a daylighted creek bed. It has signage, sculptural elements and new plantings that will need time to fill in.
The fall calendar also continues across town. The city lists Halloween at Harmon on October 31 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Harmon Park Neighborhood Center, and Tour de Rec on November 5 at Moreland Elementary and December 3 at the Thompson County Park Activity Center. Both are on the city calendar.
At 150 Thompson, the next phase is design development, which runs from November through early January and produces preliminary specifications and a design development cost estimate.
A park, a restaurant and hundreds of new homes on one corner will change how that stretch of Robert Street works over the next few years. Huerkamp Home Group follows projects like 150 Thompson for clients across West St. Paul and the south metro. If you own a home near Thompson Avenue and want to know how the timeline could affect your plans, start with a free market valuation and a conversation with our team.
