An eyesore in south Minneapolis is about to get a makeover.

The city just unveiled new drawings of a plan to reopen Nicollet Avenue. For decades, a Kmart store and parking lot blocked the road.

The plan incorporates housing, including apartments and townhomes, as well as retail businesses, like a grocery store.

"And so to make sure people aren't in a food desert, this is one excellent option for people to use," Mayor Jacob Frey said.

A big part of the new Nicollet area will include a park with green space.

The city said the plan was "guided by input from thousands of community members."

The redevelopment project encompasses 10 acres of land between the Midtown Greenway, Lake Street, First Avenue and Blaisdell Avenue.  

The project will need approval from the Minneapolis City Council and the mayor and is expected to take years to complete.

The Nicollet Kmart was destroyed in a fire in 2023 and subsequently demolished. Nicollet was razed from Lake Street to East 29th Street in 1977 to build the big box store, a move city leaders admitted decades later negatively impacted the Kingfield and Lyndale neighborhoods. The city bought the land in 2020.