Plymouth on Parade Returns to a Boulevard Rebuilt Since the Last Parade
Plymouth on Parade comes back Saturday, Oct. 10 after a two-year hiatus. It steps off at 10:30 a.m. from City Hall, 3400 Plymouth Blvd., and runs along Plymouth Boulevard and 34th Avenue to the Plymouth Community Center at 14800 34th Ave. N. The route is the same as before, but the street is not. The city redesigned Plymouth Boulevard in 2024, after the parade's last run. The new design added roundabouts, safer pedestrian crossings, trail connections, and room set aside for public art, food trucks, seating and gathering.
Gatherings like this are what the redesign was built to hold. So this year's parade is the first time the rebuilt City Center gets a crowd its plans were drawn for. Most of it is ready. One piece is still being built.
Plymouth calls City Center a strategic priority. The city's stated goal is a walkable, pedestrian-friendly downtown in the middle of a city that has never had a traditional main street. City Center sits one mile west of Interstate 494 on Highway 55. It holds the Hilde Performance Center, the Plymouth Ice Center and Life Time facility, the Plymouth Library, City Hall, and nearby businesses and restaurants.
On a normal weekday that list reads like separate destinations, each with its own parking lot. The parade connects them for one morning. City vehicles and equipment, musical acts, dance and gymnastics groups, local organizations and floats are the usual lineup. Food trucks will sell concessions, so bring a card or cash. This year's grand marshal is Greg Gibson, a former president of the Wayzata Youth Hockey Association with more than 20 years in hockey administration. That fits a route that starts across the campus from the Ice Center. Co-sponsors are the City of Plymouth, Plymouth Lions, Kyle Vitense State Farm Agency, First Class Plumbing and Renewal by Andersen.
If you last stood along Plymouth Boulevard for a parade before the redesign, here is what's there now, from the starting line outward.
The Animal Parade sculptures were picked by a public vote and placed in the same corridor the actual parade uses. For a lot of people, Saturday morning will be the first time they see them up close.
The landscaping on that list is a scaled-back version of the original plan. Hoffman & McNamara Company won the construction contract as the lowest bidder, and before any changes the contract carried an estimated project cost of about $2.1 million. City engineers had estimated about $1.45 million, and the capital improvement plan had $1.5 million set aside. A change order the City Council approved unanimously at its Sept. 9 meeting brought the total to a little over $1.6 million.
The change order removed these items:
It also modified several smaller items. City Engineer Mike Payne told the council that much of the planned signage repeated other signs. He said the city could still add it later:
"While we aren't installing these with this project, that does not mean that we can't install these at some point in the future if we find another opportune time with a project to carry it with or as the corridor or City Center develops."
At the time, most of the work was expected to wrap up by Nov. 30, with final completion expected the following May. The money came from the city's street reconstruction fund. In other words, the parade will see the plantings and monuments. Pedestrian-scale signs and column lights are on a someday list.
The parade has a lead-in the night before. Hilde Nights brings the Kat Perkins Country Roads Band to the Hilde Performance Center on Friday, Oct. 9, from 6 to 10 p.m., with the Shane Martin Band opening. The concert is free. This is a makeup date. The show was first set for Friday, July 17, with Nathan Dean Band opening, and was canceled because of poor air quality.
Together the two events make a short, compact weekend:
Both events sit on the same few blocks of City Center, the same district the redesign was meant to bring to life. Friday's crowd gathers at the Hilde entrance where the sculptures stand. Saturday's crowd lines the boulevard just south of it.
City Hall and the Community Center are the parade's start and finish, but there is still no accessible off-street path between them. The city's own project page calls that connection "one critical link that is missing." The Plymouth Creek Trail project will connect the Community Center to the Hilde Performance Center, the Plymouth Ice Center and City Hall. It includes a 500-foot boardwalk, about 0.10 mile of new asphalt trail, lights, trail counters and wayfinding signage.
Construction started this year. Tree removal was underway in March, and clearing, grubbing and erosion control followed in early August. By late August the contractor was removing poor soils before going back to the helical piles that hold up the boardwalk. The latest posted update, dated Sept. 3, said pile installation would finish the next week. After that, work would move to deck installation and the west boardwalk abutment. The city has not posted a completion date. Parade-goers walking back to City Hall from the Community Center on Saturday will take the same streets the floats used.
The trail fills a gap the parade route already covers. Once it's finished, the walk between the two ends of the route becomes a daily option. Today it happens once a year with the streets closed.
The city has also asked for more. A $26 million state bond request would pay for regional stormwater ponding, a public parking ramp, a fourth sheet of ice at the Ice Center and nearby roadway realignment. Those are proposals, not funded or finished projects.
The parade starts at 10:30, which leaves time for an early meal. Latuff's Pizzeria at 10820 Hwy. 55 now serves breakfast as Pannekoeken Huis from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Owner Wong Nystrom bought Latuff's in 2024 from the family that ran it for more than half a century. Last year he acquired the Pannekoeken Huis name and recipes, hired back much of its longtime staff, and brought in former Pannekoeken owner Derek Moberg to run breakfast. Daily breakfast began in June, and the grand opening was July 11. Nystrom's summary of the setup is "breakfast by day, pizza by night."
For lunch after the parade, Hashtag India opened in April at 3195 Vicksburg Lane N., Suite D. The menu covers street-food favorites, mandi and curries.
The next big date on the city calendar is Halloween at the Lake on Friday, Oct. 30, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Parkers Lake Playfield, 15500 County Road 6. The city lists it as free and family-friendly.
City Center projects like the boulevard redesign and the Plymouth Creek Trail change how a part of town works every day, and over time that shows up in how homeowners nearby think about where they live. If you'd like to talk through what's changing near your Plymouth home, Blake Halverson is glad to help. You can start with a free home valuation or browse more on the Plymouth neighborhood page.
Whether you are buying, selling or investing in real estate, Blake has a proven track record to be the versatile agent you need. Through strong, aggressive representation, Blake will help you achieve your desired outcomes.
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