Study: Transit is development magnet.

Byline: Brian Johnson

A new Metropolitan Council study suggests that existing and future light rail and high-frequency bus corridors in the Twin Cities are punching above their weight class when it comes to attracting new homes and businesses.

Between 2009 and 2017, permits were issued for 15,000 new multifamily housing units on sites within a half-mile of stations serving those corridors, according to the "Development Trends Along Transit" study. That equates to 30 percent of all multifamily units permitted in the seven-county metro area during the study period. The station areas account for 2 percent of the region's land, the study noted.

Met Council officials presented the study Monday to the council's Transportation Committee. Going forward, the council intends to publish similar studies on an annual basis, said Lucy Galbraith, the Met Council's director of transit-oriented development.

Besides multifamily residential, the study looked at commercial and institutional development trends.

Between 2003 and 2017, the study showed, about $3.7 billion worth of commercial development, or 33 percent of all commercial development in the region, sprouted within a half-mile of the station areas, the study noted.

Among public and institutional projects, such as government buildings and hospitals, $850 million worth of development came to station areas between 2003 and 2017. That equates to 16 percent of all public and institutional development.

More construction is on the horizon. The study estimates that 15,000 new housing units are in the pipeline within those station areas based on projects announced but not yet granted a building permit.

In St. Louis Park, for example, at least two big mixed-use developments along the Southwest corridor are in the works, as Finance & Commerce reported in November.

That includes a proposal fromPLACE, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit developer, which wants to bring 299 apartments, a 110-room hotel, a coffee shop and other uses to the southeast corner of Wooddale Avenue and Highway 7 near the Wooddale Station. Also in St. Louis Park,Sherman Associates is proposing"several hundred units" of rental housing, retail, a park-and-ride and other development connected to the Beltline Boulevard Station, which is just east of Highway 100 and south of Highway 7.

In February, the Metropolitan Council reported that developers had proposed, completed or started more than $1 billion worth of projects along the 14.5-mile Southwest...