The owners of Northtown Mall in Blaine are suing the Metropolitan Council and Metro Transit over the bus station on the ring of the mall’s property.
In 2019, the mall informed the transit agency that it wanted the station to move so that it could lease the land (on the south side of the mall near University Avenue) to a possible retail or dining establishment. According to the Met Council, the bus station is partly on land that the mall owns and partly on land the Met Council owns.
The plan was to move the bus station to the southeast corner, in a vacant mall parking lot along Sanburnol Drive NE along the Spring Lake Park-Blaine city limit border. That angered residents who live along the road, who said the noise and light pollution from the station would negatively affect their homes.
In 2020, it was revealed that the bus station would not move to that parcel after all. In an interview earlier this month, a Metro Transit spokesperson told North Metro TV the agency was still looking at options.
Washington Prime sued the Metropolitan Council over the matter in March 2020 in Anoka County. According to a Met Council spokesperson, Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick has set a trial date for the matter coming up in August.
“Our preference is always to try to resolve issues without litigation,” said a spokesperson for the Met Council. “The Council and Metro Transit continue to look for a path forward that is in the best interest of customers, the Mall (sic), and local residents.”
Washington Prime Group Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Kim Green told North Metro TV via e-mail the company does not comment on ongoing legal matters.
Minneapolis-based attorney Bryan Huntington, representing Washington Prime in Anoka County court, responded via e-mail to North Metro TV the company does not confirm or comment on ongoing legal matters.
According to the lawsuit, a 1995 agreement between owners of the mall and owners of the bus line laid out a plan for co-ownership of the land the bus transit hub would be located on, and any termination of the agreement would not come within the first ten years. If and when it did come, the owners of the bus transit line would be responsible for demolishing all structures it built and used on the site, including shelters, transit islands, and traffic circulation lanes. The work would have to be done no sooner than six months after the notice of termination. This deal went through changes of ownership on both sides, and was extended in 2011, according to the suit.
The suit goes on to say that in June 2019, Washington Prime sent notice of termination to the Met Council, with a completion date set for December 2019. Washington Prime now says that because the Met Council did not vacate and demolish its facility, it now owes $685 for each day after December 17, 2019 that it has not done so. The suit says that Met Council then notified Washington Prime it did not have to do so in a letter in January, 2020.
The suit demands Met Council pay the rent Washington Prime says it owes (at this point, about $275,000 and growing) and immediately vacate and demolish the site. It alleges Washington Prime has the right to recoup the value of the land as well as the full title to the parcels in question. It also claims Met Council has trespassed on the parcel since December 2019, and wants the Met Council to pay in excess of $50,000 in damages–in addition to $50,000 for legal fees associated with these proceedings.
