5th Avenue Greenspace
The guidelines of Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board state that every neighborhood should have its very own public open space. Phillips West, however, is one of only three neighborhoods in the city that do not. The at-street-grade crossing of the Midtown Greenway at 5th Avenue provides a unique opportunity for a future public open space, but before anything can come to fruition many must come to a consensus. Those parties include: Urban Ventures (who owns the existing parking lot on the northwest corner of the intersection of 5th Avenue and the Greenway trails), the community of Phillips West, and Wells Fargo (who owns the Home Mortgage Campus on the former Honeywell site immediately north of this area). The existing parking lot holds many different possibilities for everyone.
Phillips West was approached to gather ideas for what the Urban Ventures parking lot could be if eventually purchased and transformed into public open space. In the discussion that transpired, Phillips West requested a coordinated meeting, where appropriate representatives of Wells Fargo, Urban Ventures, Midtown Greenway Coalition and Phillips West, would need to occur first to clarify the future of this parking lot before they would be willing to share ideas of what 5th Avenue and the Greenway could be. Reluctantly, they expressed grilling stations for picnics and possible basketball courts.
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