BLAINE GOES BOOM

This is the tale of two cities -- both of them named Blaine. Old Blaine was built in the 1950s and '60s. New Blaine didn't even exist five years ago. Old Blaine is Democratic and blue-collar. New Blaine is more Republican and wealthy.

Old Blaine is thick with trees, nestling small houses and detached garages. New Blaine looks a bit naked without the foliage, with mansions along lakes and golf courses.

Old Blaine doesn't have a golf course. "Old Blaine doesn't even have a lake," said Blaine area developer Gary Gorham.

Lightning-fast development is giving cultural whiplash to several suburbs in the metro area, but rarely has it so neatly divided a city as in Blaine.

"This is basically old America vs. new America," said Earl Rasmussen, a 42-year resident of Old Blaine -- and proud of it.

When President Bush announced he was visiting Blaine earlier this month, he really meant New Blaine. When the Metropolitan Council announced recently that Blaine was the fastest-growing city in the state, it was talking about New Blaine.

When people dine out or shop in Blaine, chances are they do it in New Blaine.

The city will add 1,000 new homes this year, said Mayor Tom Ryan. "It's like building a new city. People are concerned that we have forgotten the rest of Blaine. The west side always felt left out."

Driving along Minnesota 65 is like looking into a time machine, with Old Blaine on the west and New Blaine on the east.

"Highway 65 is the absolute line of demarcation," said Steve Schmitt, a developer who is building his own home on the Tournament Players Club golf course, which signaled the start of New Blaine when it opened four years ago.

Yet the differences haven't seemed to yield conflict.

All residents are benefiting from greater tax revenue. They all eat at the 97 restaurants -- a staggering number for a city of 56,000. Their kids play hockey, golf and soccer at the National Sports Center.

In fact, City Manager Ron Wood said Blaine is moving off the welfare rolls. The city used to get money through the welfare-to-cities program called Fiscal Disparities, but the new growth means it will soon contribute money.

New tax revenue means better maintenance of streets in Old Blaine, and tax breaks to lure in new businesses.

And while most suburbs worry about supplying affordable housing, said Ryan, Old Blaine still has plenty of it.

"It is capitalism at its best," said Wood. "We have smaller houses for the needs of some people, and they can be as pretty or attractive as the big ones on the lake. There is just as much pride."

That doesn't mean there isn't a little suspicion. To Old Blaine residents, the expensive homes on the east side of Minnesota 65 make New Blaine seem as alien as, say, Minnetonka.

Ryan said a million-dollar house has been sold in Blaine, and a $3 million house is on the market. "We sometimes wonder who these people are," Ryan said.

'NOWHERE TO GO BUT UP'

Most of Old Blaine was built after World War II, one of thousands of suburban communities that met the needs of returning soldiers.

One of them was Rasmussen. "Someone said I should live in Edina," said Rasmussen, a CPA. "I said, 'Does the blue collar work there? That is most of my business.' "

What the GIs got were mobile homes or small one-story ramblers. Detached garages were an extra $500. Builders usually sold homes from 850 square feet -- the size of a quadruple garage in New Blaine -- to 2,400 square feet.

The neighborhoods were close, said Rasmussen, and they still are. "We'd have block parties once a month. In the winter we would go into basements and dance," he said.

No one considered building east of Highway 65. With sandy soil and a high water level, it was suitable only for growing sod -- or so everyone assumed.

Blaine grew from 1,500 in 1950 to about 20,000 in the 1970s. After that, the city sat like a museum exhibit of American life in a simpler time. A few houses were added, but nothing compared with the building boom in the rest of the metro area.

Land was triple the cost in the southern suburbs as in places like Blaine, said developer Schmitt.

Blaine struggled against a reputation for being lower class. At one point, it had the highest percentage of people in mobile home parks in the state, said Jim Schonrock, president of the Blaine Historical Society.

"When you are tagged with that, it's difficult to overcome," Schmitt said.

Businesses came and went -- but mostly went. Development along University Avenue stalled. The Northtown Mall, on the southern edge of the city, now has two highly visible vacancies, a former Kohl's and a Mervyn's.

Recalled developer Gorham: "Blaine had nowhere to go but up."

It has, with a vengeance.

AN ORGY OF BULLDOZING

Someone figured out that a sod farm could be turned into a soccer field for the cost of stripes and goalposts. In 1990, the 100-acre state-owned National Sports Center opened. It quickly grew into a 700-acre international sports giant that now attracts 3.2 million visitors a year -- twice as many as Target Center in Minneapolis.

Then, in the late '90s, work began on the Tournament Players Club, an 18-hole golf course owned by the PGA. Blaine land was cheap, and the location seemed perfect -- close to both core cities and near freeways.

In an orgy of bulldozing, developers moved 5 million cubic yards of dirt to create the course and lots for nearby homes.

At Club West and other developments, they dug out deep lakes. Then, with the dug up dirt and rocks plus imported topsoil, they built areas for housing above the flood levels and sculpted hills on the golf courses.

When the Tournament Players Club opened in 2000, it was a thunderbolt for the real estate community. Suddenly, Blaine had class.

"Look at Anoka County -- flat and featureless. There are no lakes, no mountains," said Paul Erickson, director of the National Sports Center. But the center and the golf club created buzz, he said. "They put Blaine on the map," said Erickson.

Last week, Schmitt sipped an iced tea in the Tournament Players Club clubhouse, a place so ritzy it has rolled-up terrycloth towels in its marble-lined bathrooms.

"When we dreamed this up, they all thought we were nuts," said Schmitt, gazing out at carts gliding across the 18th green. "To me, it's like a jewel."

It's as if Blaine residents are finally getting their due, as homebuyers from southern suburbs move into town.

"They think they are so hoity-toity," said Schmitt. "But if you take time and drive around, you will see" that with the sports center, golf course and low prices, New Blaine houses are bargains.

"Why would I want to pay $200,000 more to live in Eden Prairie?" asked Schmitt. "I can golf in the morning and be on my boat in Lake Mille Lacs by 1 p.m. Tell me, if you live in Lakeville, can you do that?"

Diane Larson is definitely New Blaine. She and husband Ken moved into their townhouse in Club West in 2002, and plan to retire there.

"I didn't want anything old anymore. I wanted something new," she said. "We have new restaurants, stores and whatnot."

The only reason to go to Old Blaine, Larson said, is to get to her daughter's house in New Brighton.

Back in Old Blaine, Paul Haider, assistant manager of Jubilee Foods on University Avenue, heard the message.

"The east side is definitely money," said Haider. "We don't get a lot of people from that side."

Old vs. New Blaine

One difference between 1950s-era Old Blaine and fast-growing New Blaine are housing prices. In 2003, the average sale price of a Blaine home or condo was more than one-third higher on the east side of Minnesota 65 than on the west side.

-- Old Blaine home price in 2003: $183,000

New Blaine home sale price in 2003: $250,000

Source: Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors

©2004 Saint Paul Pioneer Press

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