FEED Kitchens Coming to Northgate?

At last month's SNA meeting, Ellen Barnard of the FEED Kitchens project gave us a status update...and it turned out to be a lot more than we expected! Ever since the project was first announced, their intent was to build the facility on Pankratz Street (the frontage road between Packers Avenue and The Bridges, where the new Ale Asylum and Lakeland College buildings have been going up). However, Ms. Barnard shared that they'd been in discussions this summer with Alexander Co., owners of Northgate Center, about building in the parking lot and were close to a deal.

Why is this great news?

Not only is FEED a wonderful project that'll help local entrepreneurs launch food businesses with far less overhead, but building it at Northgate is the best kind of infill development we could ask for. The corner of Sherman and Aberg is the heart of our neighborhood and Northgate's enormous parking lot is seriously underutilized. The proposal is to build the FEED Kitchens along Sherman Avenue, in the rough part of the parking lot, with a restaurant or retail space to follow next door. It's a much better location than Pankratz, and more integrated with transportation facilities.

There is a catch: the ground under the parking lot is polluted with chemicals from a dry cleaning business that closed years ago. FEED is partnering with HUD, who has to approve the remediation plan, after which they have to go back through the city approval process. They'll move forward with the Pankratz site if they have to, but they would prefer Northgate. Ms. Barnard had hoped they could break ground for the foundation in November, but I haven't seen anything to indicate they'll get approvals in time.

I hope the City, HUD, and Alexander can work with NPC to "get to yes" on building FEED Kitchens at Northgate. It'll be a real boost for the Sherman neighborhood and the Northside as a whole.