GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn -- For six years, the stretch along Highway 394 at the Xenia Park Place exit has been home to the Good Day Café and Bad Day Bar, but now the property has two more opposing forces: a growing land dispute between the city of Golden Valley, and the restaurant's owner and legal team.
The two parties have gone to court over a plan to build luxury apartments and senior living on a lot next to the restaurant.
Minneapolis attorney Dan Rosen represents Good Day Café's owner David Webb, who filed a lawsuit to stop the sale of the adjacent land to private developer Mark Globus, of Global One Commercial, in Minneapolis.
Rosen says the land is owned by MnDOT and state law requires the sale to be offered to the public, and benefit the public as well. He's accused Golden Valley of circumventing the public process by courting Global One Commercial and not offering the same opportunity to the restaurant.
"When the government sells its property by cronyism, number one, it is unfair, and number two, the taxpayers in Minnesota get shortchanged," said Rosen. "Instead of building a tremendous development on this piece of property, the government is going to sell it on the cheap to its preferred developers, who are going to build an apartment development there, squandering the opportunity and shortchanging taxpayers."
Golden Valley Mayor Shep Harris argues the city has adhered to the public process from the beginning. He says the city needs housing and planned park and green space to keep up with rapid growth, with an anticipated 9,000 residents moving in by 2040. Harris believes this project, called the Three-Nine-Four apartments, would throw out a "welcome mat" for expansion.
"We have been completely transparent in terms of having two public hearings we have tried to work with the Good Day Café, 8,9,10 years ago," said Harris. "I'm disappointed. It's frustrating. Because I think Good Day Café is a great place to go, we are thrilled to have it in Golden Valley. We thought we could work out these differences in advance. But we need to go forward and do what is best for our community and this is the next step."
Rosen said Webb has offered the state hundreds of thousands dollars more than Global One Commercial's offer. Global One wants to build a six-story, 314-unit luxury apartment building, along with 120 units of assisted living and memory care.
"The city of Golden Valley picked its preferred developer to the exclusion of any other developer. They marched forward despite the fact the city didn't even own the land, and despite the fact the state couldn't sell to the city unless it had a public purpose," said Rosen.
Rosen said a district court judge determined Webb, a private citizen, cannot require state follow the public purpose aspect of the law. The district court ordered him to post a $3 million dollar bond to continue the court fight, which Webb declined and appealed.
Rosen points out the MnDOT Commissioner has the power to make an independent decision. At the time of press, KARE 11 has not received a response for interview requests with MnDOT or Global One Commercial.
As the dispute now heads to the Court of Appeals, two sides stick with separate views on what's good and bad for the future.
"I hope this isn't to dissuade investors and developers from slowing down this site in the future because then no one is going to win. The community will lose, Good Day Café will lose and any development in the future will lose there as well," said Harris.
