Retail Center planned for corner of Kenwood Avenue and Arrowhead Road

Another retail development is making it into the news today as the Duluth News Tribune officially shed light on plans being made public for a new $2.5 million dollar 11,000 square foot retail building to be developed on a high profile Duluth site. United Properties is the developer behind the planned retail center at the corner of Arrowhead Road and Kenwood Avenue, a development that would mark the official entry for United Properties into the Twin Ports market.

While it seems like one of the most logical sites in the Twin Ports to be developed due to its close proximity to area colleges not to mention the high volumes of traffic that travel on each side of the site within each passing day...yet the site still remains vacant to this day. In past years everything from Walgreens to CVS, McDonald's to DTCU have all looked at developing the site however many of them have run into zoning issues. This time things might be different.

United Properties plans to begin construction on a new retail center in April shortly after purchasing the site. They even already have a tenant for the building, one that we think almost every resident in the area (especially those college kids) will absolutely love.

Caribou Coffee has a LOI (letter of intent) for one of the spaces and plans to open a pretty special shop that is quite different from the other Caribou Coffee locations you've grown to love in Duluth. This location would feature their newest co-branded prototype meaning it not only will be Caribou Coffee but also a Bruegger's Bagels location, a bagel shop with over 300 locations nationwide and a place that also happens to be one of our personal favorites. The first co-branded location of this type opened last year in Roseville, Minnesota and the company already has expanded it and plans to open a considerable of new shops with this prototype in the coming years.

Lotus Realty is also in talks with two other food tenants for the site that would cater well to the surrounding population (Chipotle anyone?). Developers are also interested in a salon and/or a fitness center of some sort to locate within the building.

Retail center planned for the corner of Kenwood Avenue and Arrowhead Road. (Image provided by Lotus Realty)

But wait, there's more...

Not only is United Properties floating this retail center plan, but they're also floating the idea of adding about 50 units of housing to the project thus creating a slightly larger project that is a mixed-use center. The reality of that idea is dependent on the vacation of an alleyway by the Duluth Planning Commission along with the acquisition of a few neighboring properties. Development would make a decision come this Spring.

United Properties hopes to acquire the site in early Spring with construction beginning in May with completion set for Fall 2015.