Lyndale Businesses Brace for Construction Two Years Out

Hennepin County plans to reconstruct Lyndale Avenue South (County Road 22) between Franklin Avenue and 31st Street, with planning continuing through 2026 and construction set to begin in 2028. Even with the work years off, anxiety along the corridor is already running high among business owners who watched what prolonged street work did to Hennepin Avenue: closures, lost foot traffic and shuttered storefronts.

The county's current concept would keep two-way car traffic and add a separated two-way bikeway, more green space and improved lighting, but it would also eliminate about a quarter of the corridor's on-street parking. That tradeoff has split the neighborhood. At a heated open house in early June 2026, owners aligned with the Vibrant Lyndale business group argued that removing parking would make it harder to operate, while bicyclists countered that many of them live nearby and care about the corridor too. The county's proposal will need final approval from the city.

Mayor Jacob Frey, acknowledging a shifting retail landscape, told the gathering the future of businesses along Hennepin and Lyndale would be strong but "different."

The existing softness on Lyndale raises the stakes. The corridor already carries empty storefronts, and a street entering reconstruction from a position of weakness risks seeing gaps widen as marginal businesses close and would-be tenants wait out the disruption before signing leases.

The Hennepin rebuild offered a hard lesson: construction-era sales can fall below survivable levels, aid programs can arrive too late, and a finished street cannot reopen a shop that closed during the dig. Some Uptown operators, including Red Cow, have closed since that project, and the area's business association head has tied closures to the changes. Lyndale merchants are pressing now for phased work that keeps blocks open, clear communication about access, maintained parking and loading where possible, and direct financial aid committed in writing before the cones appear.

Whether the city and county deliver those commitments will shape how many of today's businesses are still standing when the new street opens.

Sources: Hennepin County,; FOX 9,