The Shelard Park neighborhood was annexed by St. Louis Park
in 1954. The first component of the complex,
located at west of Highway 100 and north of I-394, was the
8-story Shelard Park Office Building, opened on February 1,
1971. Designed by James Cooperman, the 8-story building was
the first piece of a $45 million complex which was planned
to include another 8-story office building, a 27-story
apartment building (1500 apartments), and more, surrounding a 6 acre park.
Shelard Tower, 21 stories, reached its full height in
November 1974, to be occupied in October 1975. The building
cost $17 million. General partners of the Shelard
development were Robert Liesen and Sheldon Wert. The complex
also included a 1500-stall, 5-story parking ramp. One of the
major initial tenants was General Mills. The picture
at right is from 1981.
Attached to the Tower was the Hippogriff Restaurant, “A Very
Important Bar Restaurant.” The restaurant was designed by
John Neal, Associate Project Corp. of Minneapolis, and won
an Institutions/VFM Magazine’s Interior Award. Burton
Grossman was the president of the Hoppogriff.
In 1975, a fire ripped through the Shelard Plaza movie
theater, causing $100,000 in damage. Fire departments from
Golden Valley and Edina were called in.
The damage was repaired quickly, for in the same year, the
three screen theater opened with “Breakout,” “Young
Frankenstein,” and “Shampoo.”
The complex would eventually encompassed 109.6 acres when
completed in 1986, and would include a shopping center,
movie theaters, and a restaurant.
St. Louis Park has four properties on
Wayzata Blvd. that are in the Shelard section:
9801 Wayzata Blvd. was a tudor house that had been moved in
from Minnetonka Blvd. in 1955. It has been torn down,
except for the garage, which is in the corner of Santorini's
parking lot.
9920 was built in 1973 and was first the Amalgamated Eating
and Drinking Co., with a kind of coal mine ambiance.
The building is now Santorini.
9950 is an office building built in 1979.
9970 is the Mariott Hotel, built in 1986. When it was
built it had 7 floors, 171 rooms, and 24 suites.
1000 Shelard Parkway is an office building, built in 1985 at
the westernmost border of St. Louis Park.
This information comes from a variety of sources: newspapers, books, yearbooks, phone directories, interviews, etc. Given the varied sources, we cannot guarantee that all of this information is correct, and welcome any additions and corrections. Please contact us with your contributions and comments.