Edina's 50th & France Turnover Is a Homecoming, Not a Takeover

"This might be the last time we talk about SPARC." That is what Edina's economic development manager, Bill Neuendorf, told the city's Housing and Redevelopment Authority on August 13, as the board signed off on two small grants for two storefronts on 50th & France. The program itself was winding down. The businesses it was helping finish were not new arrivals chasing a hot address. They were people who already had a foothold in this neighborhood, finally getting the last of the permits, plumbing, and electrical work sorted out so they could open the doors.

If you have walked past the former Salut space or the old D'Amico & Sons storefront this summer and wondered why the paper was still up in the windows, the SPARC grants are part of the answer. The bigger answer is who is actually behind every one of these openings, and it is a shorter list of names than the number of storefronts would suggest.

What the Grants Actually Paid For

The Edina HRA awarded $24,000 grants apiece to General Sports Bar and Smith Coffee & Cafe on August 13, both under the city's SPARC program for permanent building improvements. Neither grant was large relative to what each business is spending. General Sports Bar's total build-out runs close to $1 million, with only about $38,000 of that work eligible for the grant. Smith Coffee's owners, Alex and Ann Schuster, have put roughly $400,000 into their build-out, with about $30,000 of eligible work covered.

The Schusters' money is mostly going somewhere you will never see once the doors are open: ceilings torn out and rebuilt, electrical and plumbing replaced throughout the kitchen. What passed inspection in the space's earlier life as D'Amico & Sons does not pass in 2026. That is the real reason Smith Coffee's timeline slid from an early hope of a fast turnaround to a target opening in October. It is not marketing hesitation. It is code compliance that has to happen before anyone can pull an espresso shot.

General Sports Bar's owner, Brett Johnson, told local reporters the sports bar is now aiming for early September, later than the original "this summer" target reported back in March. Same story, different scale: permits and buildout took longer than hoped, and the city's grant helped close the last gap.

The Calendar Nobody Has Published

Because these openings are trickling in on different timelines, there is no single reopening day to circle. Here is what's actually confirmed, as of late August:

Lucia's is the only one you can actually walk into right now. The rest are staggered across the next two months, which means the "new 50th & France" everyone keeps talking about will not arrive all at once. It will arrive in pieces, through October.

Everyone Involved Already Had a Key to This Neighborhood

Here is the part that gets lost when a corner storefront changes hands: almost nobody opening a business on 50th & France this fall is new to the area.

Marty Collins and Brett Johnson, the team behind General Sports Bar, are described in local reporting as local restaurateurs and Edina natives. Johnson's father ran Edina's Hilltop eatery before Johnson took it over himself. They are not importing a concept from somewhere else and testing it on Edina. They are opening a place in the neighborhood where Johnson grew up eating.

Daniel del Prado's restaurant group already operates Dexter's, Noma Hi-Fi Bar, and Therese in the immediate area. The Side Door at Dexter's, with Lucia's now open and Daq Daq and Rose Sushi still to come, is not del Prado testing new turf. It is the same operator adding storefronts next to the ones he already runs.

Ryan Burnet, who is partnering with del Prado on Americana, previously owned Cocina del Barrio, the restaurant that used to occupy the exact address Americana is moving into. That is not a handoff to an outside operator. That is the same owner converting his own space into a new concept.

Alex and Ann Schuster have run the original Smith Coffee & Cafe in Eden Prairie since 2006. Sharon and Randy Stanley, opening Smithson at Southdale Center, already run Baldamar and 6Smith elsewhere in the Twin Cities. Every name on that list had already built something in this market before they touched a 50th & France lease.

What looks from the sidewalk like a wave of new businesses is really a small circle of established local operators consolidating real estate they already understand. That distinction matters if you live nearby and want to know what the neighborhood's dining identity is actually going to look like once the plywood comes down. It is not being handed to outside chains chasing an address. It is being reshaped by people who were already regulars.

Where the Festival Fits Into the Timeline

None of this is happening in a vacuum. The 22nd Annual Fall Into the Arts Festival returns to Centennial Lakes Park on September 12 and 13, a free two-day event benefiting the Edina First Responders Fund, with roughly 245 artists and food vendors expected across the park's grounds. General Sports Bar's early-September target puts its opening in the same general window as festival weekend, which gives residents a natural excuse to walk both in the same trip: the art fair at Centennial Lakes, then a few blocks over to see whether the sports bar's doors are actually open yet.

The timing works the other direction too. Centennial Lakes' Thursday farmers market runs from June through the first week of October, so the market's final weeks overlap almost exactly with Smith Coffee's October target. If you are already making the Thursday walk through the park for produce, that same week is when the new coffee shop is supposed to be pouring its first cups a few blocks away.

A rough itinerary for the next six weeks looks like this:

• Now through early September: Lucia's is the one confirmed option open at Side Door at Dexter's.
• September 12 to 13: Fall Into the Arts Festival at Centennial Lakes Park, free admission.
• Early September: General Sports Bar's target opening, in the former Salut space.
• Thursdays through the first week of October: the last stretch of the Centennial Lakes farmers market.
• October: Smith Coffee & Cafe's target opening in the former D'Amico & Sons space.
• Later in fall: Daq Daq, Rose Sushi, Americana, and Smithson, all without confirmed dates yet.

What This Actually Means If You Live Here

The honest version of this story is less tidy than "50th & France is back." It is a staggered handoff, spread across six weeks or more, run almost entirely by operators who already had a stake in the neighborhood before any of these leases were signed. The SPARC grants that helped push two of these projects across the finish line were among the last the city will issue under that program, which means this fall's openings are also closing out a specific chapter of how Edina has supported small commercial buildouts.

If you already live near 50th & France, the practical takeaway is patience with a plan. Do not expect a single ribbon-cutting weekend. Expect Lucia's now, General Sports Bar around the festival, Smith Coffee around the last farmers market Thursdays, and the rest trailing into the back half of fall.

Warner Group keeps an eye on details like this because they are the texture of daily life in the neighborhoods we work in, long before anyone is thinking about buying or selling a home. If you are curious about what a specific block or building in Edina means for a future move, or just want a conversation with someone who tracks this market closely, Warner Group is easy to reach. Book an appointment whenever you are ready to talk.