Two summers ago the story on Grand was closures. Paper Source packing up, Trade Winds gone after 34 years, the Victoria Crossings East mall emptying out. This summer the story is different, and if you live in Mac-Groveland you can feel it walking the sidewalk between Dale and Snelling. The nationals that flooded in a decade ago are still leaving. What's replacing them is smaller, local, and betting on the block instead of the brand.
That's the through-line for the season. Here's what actually opened, what's on the calendar, and how to work around the one intersection that's going to test everyone's patience through August.
The corner that explains the year
If you want the shortest version of Grand Avenue's 2026, stand at Grand and Victoria and look northeast. The St. Paul City Council voted 5-1 to award public financing to a project that will replace three aging buildings — the Victoria Crossings East mall, the former Billy's on Grand restaurant, and the neighboring vacant home at 841 Grand Avenue — with roughly 90 units of housing, 12,800 square feet of commercial space, 22 public parking stalls and 99 private parking stalls. The plan is to break ground in early 2026, with the hopes of having tenants move in in the summer of 2027.
That timeline matters for residents in a specific way. JUUT Salon Spa, the mall's anchor, relocated to 791 Grand Avenue effective January 13, meaning the salon most Mac-Grove regulars used didn't disappear, it just walked two blocks. Paper Source's Twin Cities footprint shrank to 50th and France in Edina and Mall of America, so the stationery run now requires a car.
What actually opened this year
The ribbon-cutting pace picked up sharply in spring. April 29 brought Mor boutique, May 1 opened Way Cool Cooking School at its new Grand Avenue location, and on May 8 Catzen Coffee celebrated a new patio space featuring a mural by artist Ara Elizabeth. Calmera Massage cut its ribbon on May 29, and Sencha Tea Bar followed on June 3.
On the food side, the biggest arrival was on the Creamery block. OG Zaza is now serving New Haven-style pizza in the space that formerly housed Justin Sutherland's egg sandwich concept, Big E, which had replaced the longtime Grand Pizzeria in 2023, and it's Twin Cities chef Josh Hedquist's sixth location. That's three tenants in that address in as many years, which is the kind of churn you notice if you walk past it every day.
| What | Where | When it opened |
|---|---|---|
| Mor boutique | Grand Ave | April 29 |
| Way Cool Cooking School | Grand Ave | May 1 |
| Catzen Coffee patio (mural by Ara Elizabeth) | Grand Ave | May 8 |
| Calmera Massage | Grand Ave | May 29 |
| Sencha Tea Bar | Grand Ave | June 3 |
| OG Zaza | Grand Ole Creamery building | March |
| JUUT Salon Spa (relocated) | 791 Grand Ave | January 13 |
Worth adding to the mental map: the new bike corrals installed outside Dunn Brothers Coffee and Kowalski's Market are a yearlong pilot funded through the city's Commercial Corridor Program that converts street parking spaces into bicycle parking. If you've been circling for a car spot lately, that's part of the reason, and it's a deliberate trade.
Russell's, in the old Tavern on Grand space at 656 Grand, is now into its second summer. Owner Todd Russell grew up on the street, and his read on where Grand is headed is one most longtime residents will recognize. "I think the direction should be that we return to our roots. Grand Avenue has, historically, been known for some of the best Mom and Pop shops in the Twin Cities and I think that we need to return to that place, and introduce these great, locally owned concepts."
The Grand and Snelling detour, translated
Here's the part that will actually change your weekly routine. The intersection of Grand Avenue and Snelling Avenue is being rebuilt in 2026, with bumpouts at all four corners to improve pedestrian crossings, construction anticipated to start mid-to-late June and be completed by the end of August 2026.
What that means block by block:
- Snelling stays open with one lane of traffic in each direction throughout most of construction, with limited closures possible during paving.
- Grand between Macalester Street and Snelling is scheduled to close July 20 through mid-August for work on the west side of the intersection, with the east side closed mid-August through late summer.
- Traffic is being detoured via Hamline, St. Clair, and Fairview avenues.
- Grand Avenue itself remains open for business access and parking.
Translation for someone who lives here: the businesses at the corner are still open, they just don't look open from a car window. If you always turn onto Grand from Snelling, retrain yourself now to come in from Fairview or St. Clair. The tenants at Sencha Tea Bar and everyone else on that half-block will remember which neighbors kept walking over during August.
If you own a home within walking distance, this is the summer where being able to walk to Grand is worth more than usual. The people driving through are going to reroute for two months.
Where to be on a Saturday
The event calendar this summer is heavier on the small and recurring than the single blowout. Grand Old Day already happened, stretching roughly two miles from Dale Street to Snelling Avenue on Sunday, June 7, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with live music stages and beverage gardens opening at 11 a.m. What's still on the docket:
- Music on the Lawn at Macalester. A Macalester-Groveland Community Council program, in partnership with the City of Saint Paul Commercial Corridor Program, the Grand Avenue Business Association, and Ambit Media Company, sponsored by Macalester College, running every other Tuesday all summer.
- Red Balloon's July shop-hop. Red Balloon Bookshop and 29 participating Grand Ave businesses are running one of the summer's most anticipated activities in July.
- Live buskers on Grand. Saturday, July 25, 4 to 6 PM; Saturday, August 8, 11 AM to 1 PM; and Saturday, August 22, 4 to 6 PM.
- The Great Neighborhood Garage Sale. Summit Hill, Highland Park, and Mac-Groveland are teaming up from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, June 12 and Saturday, June 13, with households across all three neighborhoods participating.
The garage sale in particular is one of those Mac-Grove things that doesn't show up on the tourist listicles. Three neighborhoods coordinating a single Friday-Saturday window is different from the usual scattered driveway sale, and it pulls foot traffic across the Randolph and Summit boundaries in a way that changes what you'll actually find.
What the calendar tells you the top-10 lists don't
Read the openings, the closures, and the construction together and one pattern shows up. Grand has suffered from competing narratives post-COVID, with an exodus of national retail brands and a handful of larger restaurant spaces struggling to find new tenants like the former Salut, while at the same time Cafe Latte is thriving, as are Golden Fig, Hyacinth, Red Rabbit, Emmett's Public House, and Saji-Ya.
The 2026 wave of new tenants is almost entirely on the second side of that ledger. Mor, Way Cool, Catzen, Calmera, Sencha, OG Zaza, Russell's — small operators, most with a single location or a small Twin Cities footprint, taking spaces the nationals left behind. The Victoria Crossings redevelopment is bigger and slower, but its retail component is only 12,800 square feet across the corner, which is closer in scale to a row of Grand Avenue storefronts than to a mall replacement.
For anyone who's lived on the west end of the neighborhood long enough to remember when Snelling was a food dead zone, the last few years have quietly closed that gap too. Hot Hands Pie & Biscuit, Monkey Temple Tandoori Grill and Alehouse, and Simplicitea joined the two-year-old Rah'mn and Mac's Fish Chips Strips on the block anchored by The Grove apartment building, and that cluster is now a walkable dinner option from most of Mac-Grove.
The practical takeaways
For the rest of summer 2026, three things are worth locking in:
- Plan around July 20 through late August. Grand at Snelling is going to be a mess in stages. If your standing coffee, workout, or errand loop hits that corner, pick a Plan B route through Fairview or St. Clair now.
- Try the new tenants before the school year restarts. Sencha, Calmera, OG Zaza, Way Cool, and Mor are all first-year operators. First-year foot traffic is what gets renewed leases signed.
- Use the recurring events, not just Grand Old Day. Music on the Lawn every other Tuesday and the three summer busker Saturdays are lower-key than the June festival and easier to actually enjoy with a stroller or a dog.
If a summer walk down Grand has you starting to think about whether your Mac-Groveland house still fits or what a move within the neighborhood might look like, David Brandner works this corridor and can give you a straight read on your home's current value. Get your instant home valuation and we'll go from there.
