Northeast Metro Business | Page 58

THE GROWTH OF CITY CENTER & VHEDC GO
‘ HAND-IN-HAND ’
THEN : A century ago , along present-day County Road E , expansive farms and scenes of farmers with their pails of potatoes and horse-drawn wagons full of other crops were as common as today ’ s bustling shopping plazas and high-performance cars .
NOW : Current VHEDC Executive Director Ling Becker , front right , with VHEDC Founder Hank Tessier ( front , left ); and , ( standing , from left ) former VHEDC Executive Directors Mike Bromelkamp , Jerry Moynagh and Gerry Urban
THE GROWTH OF CITY CENTER & VHEDC GO
‘ HAND-IN-HAND ’

Today ’ s City Center is a very different landscape from 100 years ago , when large tracts of land – both south and north of today ’ s County Road E – were expansive farms mostly owned by the Swedes and Italians who followed the founding French Canadian families of Vadnais , Garceau and Bibeau to the Lake Vadnais area . Today , City Center is a bustling “ downtown ,” complete with a modern City Hall and fire station ; Walmart Supercenter ; Vadnais Square with a bank , several restaurants , Fresh Thyme Farmers Market and Target ; hair and nail salons ; gas stations ; hotels ; several state-of-the-art medical facilities ; and , so on .

Last year , with the goal of bringing more residents to City Center , the VHEDC re-introduced “ farming ” back into the community by launching a summer Farmers Market ( see ad , page 64 ). At one time , scenes of farmers with their pails of potatoes were as common along present-day County Road E as the large families planting and harvesting their fields and loading up horse-drawn wagons with melons , cabbage , corn , peppers , tomatoes and other foods – all bound for St . Paul and other markets .
The Walmart site was once known as “ Andersonville .” Emil and Minnie Anderson had moved their family and their St . Paul coal business office to their first 20 acres in the 1890s . They hauled melons to St . Paul and cabbage to Chaska for sauerkraut production . Their children grew up , had families and stayed on the farm ; eventually , a row of nine houses stretched along the southside of County Road E .
On the northside of the road – present-day Vadnais Square – Pasquale Valento and his extended family farmed over 100 acres , purchased with gold and silver he saved from his railroad job in St . Paul . Pasquale and Louise had 15 children and grew crops of asparagus , onions , beans , squash and berries . Another Valento grew strawberries where City Hall is today .
Frank and Agnes Bibeau founded their 30-acre farm in the early 1900s ; they were one of the last Vadnais Heights ’ farming families to sell land in the early 1980s for the development of the southeast quadrant , which began with Vadnais ( Jimmy ’ s ) Plaza .
According to former City Administrator Gerry Urban , who farms land on Labore Road , long-term planning for City Center began when City officials and the newly-formed Vadnais Heights Economic Development Corporation ( VHEDC ), led by former Mayor Hank Tessier , met in 1985 to declare the City “ open for business .” Thus began an aggressive marketing plan based on a prime location and open spaces off I-35E .
Urban says , “ The top three goals were a hotel , a grocery store , and a plan for mixed commercial development in the approximate 140 acres of undeveloped or underdeveloped land in the four quadrants adjacent to I-35E and County Road E . The Vadnais City Center Plan became part of the City ’ s Comprehensive Plan . Today , we have a good mixture of businesses , but only the northwest quadrant is fully complete .” ( Present-day Mayor Bob Fletcher has made it a goal to complete development of the northeast quadrant , where Perkins Restaurant , Fairfield Inn and Allina Health Clinic sit .)
Ironically , it was the northeast quadrant that first realized commercial development in 1975 with Perkins and a gas station . Ten years later , Vadnais Plaza was built across the street ; Ruberto ’ s Restaurant , a fine dining establishment , anchored it . Then , in
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58 Vadnais Heights Business Guide & Community Profile