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City to Present Sixth Annual Zenith Awards

[Duluth, MN] The City of Duluth Planning and Development Division will present the sixth annual Zenith Awards to the Redstone Lofts redevelopment project, and Joseph Kleiman for the reuse of a former gas station on Central Entrance at the August 13 Planning Commission meeting.

Zenith Awards are given annually to projects and or people who implement the governing principles within the Duluth Comprehensive Plan. Guiding principles can be found here http://www.imagineduluth.com/media/548496/4_governing-principles.pdf.

The first Zenith Award will be presented to Darren Jablonsky for the Redstone Lofts redevelopment project. This project redeveloped the Oliver Traphagen House, located at 1509 East Superior Street which was built in 1892. In 1919, the home was converted by the Congdon family estate into a nine-unit apartment building. The building burned in a case of arson in 2014, which caused the house to be boarded shut. Today, the redevelopment which was completed earlier in 2019 offers 11 modern lofts.

The second award will be presented to Joseph Kleiman, for creative project design and adaptive reuse of a former gas station at the corner of Central Entrance and Arlington Road. The gas station was turned into a state of the art Caribou Coffee location that includes a drive-through component through what use to be a car wash. Mr. Kleiman has been very active in the community and has led other redevelopment projects, including the redevelopment of the former Expert Tire on First Street into a mixed-use (housing and commercial) development.

To round out the awards, Luke Sydow will be recognized for his long-term service on the Duluth planning commission. Mr. Sydow served for a total of nine years as a planning commissioner. He termed off of the commission earlier this year.

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