Woodbury MN retail center in the works

A new grocery store and shopping center is being built to accomodate Woodbury MN residents.

The tentatively named Bielenberg Gardens project is the first part of a high-density "urban village" master plan the City is drafting for the southwest corner of Bailey Road and Radio Drive. Woodbury has determined that is the suburb's next area for residential growth in the future.

One of the Twin Cities fastest-growing suburbs in the past decade, Woodbury experienced a wave of construction of malls, shopping centers and stores, but much of it was in the city's north near Interstate 94. The suburb's south has fewer basic services, and the new project's developers -- Bloomington-based United Properties and local residential land developer Tim Thone -- say the shopping center will fill the gap in necessities not just for southern Woodbury, but northern Cottage Grove.

This Woodbury MN project is one of the few such neighborhood retail centers in the works around the Twin Cities. About half of the proposed 120,000-square-foot center will be the grocery store. Pending city approvals, there are plans to break ground on the 28-acre development next spring. It would open by the fall of 2012.

The working name of Bielenberg Gardens is a reference to Woodbury's first mayor, Orville Bielenberg. His farm once stood nearby.