Tim Meyer is a Duluth architect and community builder writing about Downtown Duluth, politics, business, sports and economic development. Reach him at tim.meyer@meyergroupduluth.com
West Duluth doesn't need another glossy plan. It needs a pulse.
If we’re going to talk about downtown redevelopment — and we have — then we better turn our eyes west of 40th Avenue. Because Spirit Valley isn’t a sentimental afterthought. It’s a working-class spine of this city that has waited, patiently and not-so-patiently, for follow-through.
Start with Janet Kennedy — the unofficial mayor of West Duluth. If you’ve spent any time in civic rooms over the past decade, you know the title fits. I served eight years on the Planning Commission. Janet was there nearly every meeting. Prepared. Direct. Quick study. She asked the questions others danced around. And she never let equity and inclusion drift to the margins of the conversation.
She ran for City Council in 2015. Lost. Ran again. Lost. Ran again. Won.
Three cycles. No excuses. No retreat. Persistence isn’t a slogan in West Duluth. It’s a survival skill.
In 2020 she pulled together an effort to build a new community center — a permanent home for the Spirit Valley Youth Center, shared facilities with Duluth schools and Laura MacArthur Elementary. A real anchor. A real gathering point. I joined early conversations with Kennedy, Russ Salgy and then-Superintendent John Magas. The vision was simple: structure, safety and opportunity for at-risk kids — and a true center of gravity for the neighborhood.
Mayor Roger Reinert elevated it as a priority when he took office. The project has since shifted and evolved, now incorporating a community health component. It’s still moving. Slowly. But moving.
West Duluth understands something City Hall occasionally forgets: buildings matter, but purpose matters more.
Then there’s Bob Boone and the restoration of the West Theatre. That wasn’t a public-sector masterstroke. That was private grit. Boone and local entrepreneurial financing — including former Pioneer Bank interests — dragged an Art Deco landmark back from the brink. The West Theatre is now the emotional centerpiece of West Duluth’s business district.
The city offered token support. It could have offered muscle.
If you want a symbol of West Duluth’s crossroads, drive past the old Kmart site. Owned by Capco and Kent Oliver, it has sat idle for years. It is the most obvious redevelopment opportunity in the western corridor. A proposal to convert it into storage was blocked — Kennedy and neighborhood voices argued it would undersell the land’s potential.
They were right.
That parcel sits near the freeway, near the central business district, near momentum. The vision shouldn’t be small-box reuse. It should be mixed-use density — housing, retail, restaurants, office space. Something in the mold of Bluestone or Arbor Lakes. Something that expands the tax base and gives people a reason to stay west after work.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: that doesn’t happen without city incentives and a serious public-private partnership. Vision without leverage is just talk. First you decide what it should be. Then you go to work.
The same clarity is needed at Spirit Mountain and the Lake Superior Zoo. Both have required steady public subsidy. Both have untapped potential. At some point, the city has to ask whether private management and outside capital could elevate them beyond maintenance mode. Executive Director Ann Glumac and city staff have worked hard at Spirit Mountain. But incremental upgrades won’t turn it into a regional draw. Private investment might.
The zoo? It could be more than a pleasant hillside attraction. Northern Minnesota has room for a bolder concept — experiential, immersive, destination-driven. Tourism is one of Duluth’s economic engines. Acting like it’s a side hobby is a mistake.
For all the frustration, there are real wins in West Duluth.
The former U.S. Steel site — long a brownfield scar — is producing results. Burnett Dairy. Continental Ski & Bike. Housing in Morgan Park. An Amazon fulfillment center. Goodwill Industries. New trails carved by Parks and Recreation. Years of planning staff persistence are finally bearing fruit.
And then there’s the $300 million Sofidel paper expansion — one of the largest industrial investments in Duluth in decades — bringing more than 160 jobs. That is not theoretical redevelopment. That’s payroll. That’s families. That’s tax base.
So yes, there is hope for West Duluth. But hope is not a strategy.
The city is currently undertaking a West Duluth redevelopment planning process. Good. Plans are necessary. But what West Duluth needs now is execution — capital deployment, incentives aligned with vision, deadlines, dirt moving.
West Duluth has endured decades of deferred attention. Mayor Reinert made it a stated priority. The question now is whether that priority shows up in budgets, negotiations and ribbon cuttings.
Duluth has never lacked for plans. It has occasionally lacked for nerve. West Duluth doesn’t need another document. It needs action.
