Coon Rapids Approves Development Agreement for Eight-Home Redevelopment of Former Fire Station 3 Site

The September 1 approval advances the long-planned transformation of the approximately two-acre city property at 2831 113th Avenue NW from a former public-safety site into a single-family neighborhood.

COON RAPIDS, MN (September 4, 2026). The Coon Rapids City Council has approved a development agreement with MarNicArt and Ibiza LLC, moving the redevelopment of the former Fire Station 3 property another significant step toward construction of eight single-family homes.

The council approved the agreement Tuesday, September 1, according to the city's newly released summary of the meeting.

The action follows nearly a year of planning, land-use approvals and negotiations surrounding the approximately two-acre property at 2831 113th Avenue NW.

The site was previously occupied by Coon Rapids Fire Station 3 and became available for redevelopment after the city's fire department transitioned to its newer facilities.

Coon Rapids began formally seeking redevelopment proposals for the property with a specific objective: transforming the former institutional site into a small single-family residential development.

The city's original solicitation called for approximately eight residential lots and said the city preferred a project in which the buyer would assume responsibility for demolition of the existing improvements.

The city also established design expectations intended to make the development compatible with the surrounding neighborhood.

Those guidelines called for single-family homes intended for owner occupancy rather than a higher-density residential project.

The redevelopment has since moved through several stages of city review.

The Coon Rapids Planning Commission considered the preliminary plat and subdivision variances during a public hearing June 18.

No public comments were received at that hearing, according to information subsequently presented to the City Council.

The Planning Commission recommended approval.

On July 7, the City Council approved the preliminary plat and requested subdivision variances for MarNicArt.

The proposed subdivision divides the former fire-station property into eight lots for eight single-family homes.

The developer submitted the final plat application July 28.

When the final plat reached the City Council August 3, city staff reported that the design had not been significantly altered from the preliminary plat and that no new engineering, fire or sustainability comments had been added since the earlier approval.

The council approved the final plat.

The city's approval process did not end there.

On August 18, the City Council approved a third amendment to the purchase agreement involving the property.

The September 1 development agreement represents the latest formal step in that sequence.

The project carries significance beyond its relatively small eight-home size because it completes a transition in the use of land that served Coon Rapids for years as a public-safety facility.

The city originally described the property as approximately two acres containing the former fire-station building and parking lot.

Its previous institutional designation reflected that municipal use.

Redeveloping it for housing required the city to address comprehensive-plan and zoning questions before the residential subdivision could proceed.

The city's original property solicitation also established several financial and development expectations for prospective buyers.

Those anticipated terms included $10,000 in earnest money, a 120-day contingency period and the possibility of a 90-day extension requiring an additional $10,000 in nonrefundable earnest money.

The solicitation contemplated a purchase and development agreement rather than an unconditional sale, giving the city a mechanism for tying disposition of the former public property to the proposed redevelopment.

The final financial and performance obligations contained in the development agreement approved September 1 should be distinguished from those earlier solicitation terms unless and until the complete executed agreement is publicly reviewed.

The city has confirmed the agreement's approval but its September 3 council summary does not enumerate all of the agreement's detailed construction deadlines, guarantees, default provisions or other performance requirements.

The underlying development itself, however, is no longer merely conceptual.

The preliminary plat has been approved.

The final plat has been approved.

The purchase agreement has undergone multiple amendments.

And the City Council has now approved the development agreement.

For residents near 113th Avenue NW, that progression means the former Fire Station 3 property is moving closer to its next permanent use: an eight-home single-family development occupying land that once housed one of Coon Rapids' public-safety facilities.

The September approval does not mark the beginning of the Fire Station 3 redevelopment story.

It marks the point at which a proposal MinneapoliMedia has followed through the city's planning process has moved substantially closer to becoming a physical neighborhood.

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