On Saturday, May 9, a group of cyclists left downtown Hopkins and rode the trail to the West Lake Street Station in Minneapolis. Back home, visitors could step aboard a train parked at the Downtown Hopkins Station, which wasn't carrying passengers yet, and then walk up to Mainstreet. The Mainstreet Food Truck Festival ran there from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. that day. The city called the day Open Trails to the Rails. The free ice cream helped, but the route mattered more. The day began at the station, ran north on 8th Avenue, and finished on Mainstreet.
That route is the pattern for downtown Hopkins this fall. On Sept. 26, Metro Transit announced that the Green Line Extension will open to riders on June 12, 2027. That makes this autumn the last one before trains run. Almost every change on Mainstreet right now sits on, near, or because of one short street. Downtown Hopkins has always been a long east-west strip. It's now getting a front door on its south side, and the door is 8th Avenue.
Hopkins Mayor Patrick Hanlon put the history plainly at the opening-date ceremony. "The city of Hopkins was named after a train stop," he told the Minnesota Star Tribune. "This is returning us home to that train culture."
The Door on 8th Avenue
The city calls the rebuilt stretch of 8th Avenue the Artery. It runs from Excelsior Boulevard up to Mainstreet. The city's project FAQ lists wider pedestrian space, landscaping, areas for gatherings and public art, and a two-way cycle track. That track links the Minnetonka Regional Trail to the Cedar Lake Regional Trail.
The Downtown Hopkins Station sits at the Artery's south end, just below Mainstreet. Met Council plans for the station include a public plaza, a passenger drop-off, a bus stop, and a plaza connection to a nearby regional trail. Put the two plans together and you get a walking route that didn't really exist in this form a few years ago. You get off the train, cross a plaza, and head north on a street built for people on foot and on bikes until you reach the 700 and 800 blocks of Mainstreet.
The city has already started sending people that way. In a May 2026 notice, Hopkins told trail users to go to the Downtown Hopkins Station and then north along the Artery to reach Mainstreet. The Star Tribune described the investment as years of money and effort spent "rolling out a proverbial welcome mat for the train," including a pedestrian-friendly rebuild of the road between a station and downtown. Hanlon described the larger goal as moving Hopkins away from the car-centric growth of the last century. He wants dense, walkable design that looks more like the city's streetcar-era downtown.
The scale explains why the city cares about one street. The Federal Transit Administration projects that the new Green Line segment will carry 29,000 riders a day on weekdays and 9.5 million a year by 2035, the Star Tribune reported. Riders getting off at Hopkins' downtown stop will reach Mainstreet by walking up 8th Avenue.
What's Filling In Along Mainstreet
With the door in place, look at what has opened, started, or been approved along Mainstreet in 2026. Here's where each project stood as of early October:
| Address | What | Status as of Oct. 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 740 Mainstreet | Bogati, Ecuadorian ice cream | Opened June 2026 |
| 907 Mainstreet | Historically themed cocktail lounge, private club, event venue | Preliminary agreement approved Oct. 6 |
| 501 Mainstreet | Four-story, 41-unit apartment building | Under construction, expected June 2027 |
| 525 Mainstreet | Proposed second phase, 33 units | Proposed |
Bogati chose Hopkins for its first Minnesota location. The Ecuadorian ice-cream chain opened at 740 Mainstreet in June, according to Bring Me The News' June 2026 openings roundup. The 700 block is the stretch where the Artery meets Mainstreet. A shop there will be one of the first storefronts people pass when they walk up from the train.
907 Mainstreet made news this week. On Oct. 6, the Hopkins City Council unanimously approved a preliminary development agreement with Eden Endeavors LLC, a Champlin-based firm founded by Vinita Patil. The Sun Sailor reports that she grew up in Hopkins. Her plan calls for a historically themed cocktail lounge, a private membership club with a cigar lounge, and an event venue.
The building opened as a Masonic lodge in 1902. Albert Pike Lodge Chapter No. 237 used it until the group disbanded in 2015 and sold it to the city that year for $140,000. The sale came with an agreement not to demolish the building for at least 10 years. The Hopkins Historical Society had planned to move in, but a 2017 historic structures report estimated the work at about $3.5 million. The building needed fixes for rotted wood, asbestos, and accessibility. The society now has a permanent home inside the Hopkins Activity Center. The Sun Sailor's report notes that this week's agreement is only the first step in the development process, with more information to come as the process continues. The plan centers on evening use and events, the kind of business that benefits when people can walk in from a train.
501 Mainstreet is on a timeline that lines up closely with the trains. Footprint Development broke ground June 16 on a four-story, 41-unit building and expects to finish in June 2027, with residents moving in the following July. A three-story second phase with 33 units is proposed next door at 525 Mainstreet. If the schedule holds, the building will be finished in the same month the Green Line starts carrying riders.
A Fall Calendar That Already Uses the Corridor
Downtown Hopkins' fall events show the same pull toward the 8th Avenue end of Mainstreet. Here's what's coming up:
- Saturday, Oct. 10, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: The Hopkins Fire Department's annual Open House at the Hopkins Fire Station, 101 17th Avenue S.
- Saturday, Oct. 10: The third annual Twin Cities Bike Tour, moved to this date, with route options through Hopkins and neighboring west-metro cities.
- Saturday, Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Halloween in Hopkins on Mainstreet, with the street closed from 8th Avenue to 12th Avenue.
- Sunday, Nov. 1, 3 to 4 p.m.: The Hopkins Westwind Concert Band's free "From Tokyo to Broadway" concert at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, 1111 Mainstreet.
Look at the Halloween boundaries. The closure starts at 8th Avenue, where the Artery comes in, and runs east past 907 Mainstreet to the block with the Center for the Arts. The Mainstreet Food Truck Festival and Open Trails to the Rails in May used that same stretch. So did September's events at Downtown Park, 40 9th Ave. S., including the Latino Cultural Celebration on Sept. 20 and the Hopkins Education Foundation's Rock-n-Royal on Sept. 26. Downtown's public calendar already centers on the blocks closest to the station.
The Stations at Either End
Hopkins has two other stops besides downtown, Blake Road and Shady Oak, and both are built more around the car. That contrast shows why 8th Avenue gets so much attention.
Blake Road Station sits just north of the Blake Road and Excelsior Boulevard intersection, beside the Cedar Lake LRT Regional Trail. The plans include a park-and-ride lot, a passenger drop-off, a bus stop, and a pedestrian underpass beneath Blake Road. A planned $330 million redevelopment of the 17-acre site next to the station, with housing and commercial space, remains stalled. The Star Tribune reported on Sept. 16 that the city, the developer, and the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District still disagree. The project's affordable apartment phase opened in 2023. As of that September report, most of the rest of the property was still fenced and undeveloped.
Shady Oak Station is near Shady Oak Lake on the Hopkins and Minnetonka border. The plans include a large park-and-ride lot and a link to the Minnesota River Bluffs Trail. Across the whole extension, Metro Transit counts seven Park & Ride locations with more than 2,500 free spaces.
Those details explain the differences. Blake Road and Shady Oak are mostly drive-to-the-train stations with big parking lots. Downtown Hopkins is the one stop where the city spent its effort on the walk from the platform to the businesses. Of the three Hopkins stations, only downtown already has a business district a short walk away. The same rail corridor continues east into St. Louis Park, whose fall changes we covered in an earlier post.
By the Met Council's count, the extension was more than 90 percent complete as of January 2026, with all track laid. That leaves this fall and the coming winter for Mainstreet to fill in before June 12. Bogati's counter at 740 Mainstreet is already open. The 1902 lodge at 907 has a preliminary agreement with a developer and a plan. Apartments are going up at 501 Mainstreet, and the Artery runs from Excelsior Boulevard to the corner where the Halloween closure begins on Oct. 31.
If you'd like to talk through what the new station means for your corner of Hopkins, the West + Main Homes MN team is glad to share what we're watching between Excelsior and Mainstreet, from the 907 lodge's next steps to 501 Mainstreet's move-in date. Let's connect. You can also start with our Hopkins neighborhood guide.
