The Monroe Street extension between Main and East Cherry streets will be closed this week for utility connections related to The Mint, which expects to top out over the next two months.

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The second phase of The Mint, at the corner of Polar and Main streets, has completed concrete work and starting framing work, Jacqueline Dirmann told commissioners during her engineering report at Wednesday’s Redevelopment Agency meeting, held via Zoom. The six-story, 108-unit building is expected to top out in the next eight weeks (about mid-March), then work will begin internally. The Mint is expected to be completed by late 2022, she said.

The utility connection work is expected to take about a week, according to Dirmann said.

Commissioner Rodney Farrar, who’s also 1st Ward councilman, asked whether the extension of Monroe Street to the parking deck includes demolition of the East Cherry Street building owned by the city.

Once upon a time there was talk about extending Monroe Street all the way across East Cherry Street to Lewis Street, Dirmann replied. Instead, demolition of the building will not extend the road way but become a park area.

The city will look to acquire one additional parcel through Green Acres funding, Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Robert Landolfi said, and hopefully will be able to acquire that vacant parcel and marry it up with what’s now a paved area and The Cherry Pit – the building to which Farrar referred. If the city is able to do that, he said that would all become a park with modest facilities that could host concerts and events and such things.

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