On September 4, 2026, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board published the draft schematic design for Hiawatha Links. It came out of more than a decade of study and community meetings and builds on the 2022 Park Plan. The plan includes a new course layout, restored wetlands, boardwalks around Lake Hiawatha and a Nordic ski loop. The same announcement says construction could start in 2030 at the earliest, and only once funding is secured. Until then, Hiawatha Golf Course stays open.
The other big project near the lakes works the same way. Improvements at Lake Nokomis's 50th Street Beach are still in the paperwork stage, with construction expected in 2027. So the big changes around both lakes are years away. This fall, the changes you can actually see are a new restaurant on Chicago Avenue, a familiar shop on 34th Avenue looking for its next owner, and a few dates worth putting on the fridge.
What the Hiawatha Links Plan Actually Proposes
Most of the plan's activity sits near the existing clubhouse. The draft calls for a renovated clubhouse, a new community facility, a plaza with outdoor dining and a 4.5-acre neighborhood park nearby.
The golf course would become a 9-hole regulation layout on 70 acres. Multiple tee locations, large greens and two pin placements would let golfers play it as an 18-hole round. The learning area would include a First Tee of Minnesota facility, a driving range, a 9-hole short course, a bigger short-game practice area, the original practice putting green and an 18-hole Himalayan-style putting course.
The parts most likely to change daily routines for people who don't golf:
- About 3 miles of new sidewalks, trails and boardwalks making year-round loops around Lake Hiawatha
- A Nordic ski loop of about 6 km, a sledding hill and snowmaking
- About 70 acres of restored wetlands, plus prairie and savanna
- Stormwater treatment, reuse ponds for irrigation and snowmaking, and less groundwater pumping
Why the Plan Exists, and Why It Takes So Long
The park board traces the project to water. Hiawatha Golf Course has flooded four times in the last 75 years. After the 2014 flood, MPRB learned it was pumping more than 240 million gallons of groundwater a year to keep the course dry, without a permit from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Commissioners then told staff to plan a course that pumps less groundwater, handles floods and is built around ecology, with at least nine holes.
The 2014 flood was 12 years ago, and the design is now at the 30% stage. Public comments closed September 20. Staff will finalize the package and present it to the Board of Commissioners this fall, then start seeking money from a variety of sources. The Board's agenda will be the next place the project shows up. The park board's announcement gives no specific vote date.
The plan has had critics. In August 2025, David Thebus wrote a guest column in the Longfellow Nokomis Messenger calling the earlier nine-hole concepts financially unsound and not inclusive enough. He was responding to those earlier concepts, not to the design released this September.
For anyone who plays Hiawatha, the practical takeaway is simple. MPRB lists the course as open sunrise to sunset, with a clubhouse snack bar and beverage service on the course. The park board hasn't posted a closing date for this season, so check the tee sheet before a late-October round. The course you play this fall is the one you'll likely be playing for several more seasons.
Lake Nokomis Is on a Shorter Clock
The 50th Street Beach project is smaller, and its timeline is easier to see. The work includes a retaining wall to stabilize the shore, better ADA-compliant access and upgraded amenities. Southwest Voices reports the schedule as construction documents this fall, bidding over the winter of 2026–27 and construction in spring 2027. MPRB's project page also lists 2027 for construction and says there are no road closures. The public open house was September 16.
Some shoreline work is happening now. MPRB's schedule for phase two of the Lake Nokomis shoreline and habitat project shows work on the west side of the lake from August through October 2026, with no road closures listed.
The Painted Turtle, which took over the Lake Nokomis concession from Sandcastle in 2023, has switched to fall hours of 11 a.m. to sundown. It hasn't posted a closing date for the season, so on a cool afternoon it's worth checking before you walk over for ice cream. Nokomis Naturescape Garden is open 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. within park hours of 6 a.m. to midnight, so there's still a lakeside walk on the shortening October evenings.
The Changes You Can Walk To This Fall
Nokomis House opened in August at 5401 Chicago Ave., in the former Stonegarden space. Owner Abe Ponce Delgadillo also runs La Tapatia and La Madre. Racket describes Nokomis House as more American-focused and family-friendly than his other restaurants. Axios called it Americana with Mexican twists. Dinner starts at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and at 3 p.m. on weekends, and weekend brunch runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
A bit north of the lakes, Bill's Bait Shop opened August 7 at 3101 E. 42nd St. It's a bar and restaurant with a bait-shop theme.
The biggest story along 34th Avenue is about who comes next. On September 30, Sarah Friedman, executive director of the Nokomis East Neighborhood Association, wrote in the Messenger that Nokomis Surplus owners Raul and Maria Morales are looking for a successor. The shop started almost by accident. Raul bought the two-story building at 4935 S. 34th Ave. in December 2019, when it housed Mug and Brush barber shop. The barbers didn't renew their lease in February 2020, so he spent six months redoing the building and moved his online surplus business into it.
Seven years later, Raul is ready to retire to a small farm, maybe with chickens. The building is listed for sale, and he has offered to train a buyer who wants to keep the store going.
"I feel like we finally did the hard part of the grinding part, and now we've built it up."
No closing date has been announced. For now, the shop's future depends on whether the right buyer turns up.
The October and November Calendar
Five dates between now and early November:
- October 1, 6:30–7:30 p.m. NENA's Housing & Development Committee meets virtually. Its next meeting is November 5 at 6:30 p.m.
- October 4. Nokomis Parkway is among the roads closed for the Medtronic TC Marathon.
- October 10, 10 a.m. to noon. Nokomis East Clean Up at Shoreview Triangle Park.
- October 27, 4–7 p.m. The Nokomis Boo Blast at Lunds & Byerlys, 4725 Cedar Ave.
- November 7, 11 a.m. Another NENA cleanup is on the calendar.
The 18th annual Monarch Festival at Lake Nokomis Recreation Center was September 12, with music, food, dance, art, native-plant sales and monarch activities. The next big lake event on the park board's list is the Hiawatha Links presentation to commissioners later this fall.
If you own a home near Lake Hiawatha or Lake Nokomis, these long-range park plans are part of your home's story too. That's true whether the house is a bungalow facing the parkway or a mid-century ranch a few blocks from the beach. Claire Louise Johnston follows these timelines block by block and can show you how today's market reads your home with a 2027 beach project and a 2030-or-later course redesign still ahead. Get your instant home valuation to start.
