Niven Property Construction On Schedule

The flowers grew wild and weeds rampaged through the untended garden for years. Some gardeners might have looked at it and suggested plowing it under and starting over.

That's what's been happening lately at the former Niven Nursery on Doherty Drive in Larkspur. Most of the greenhouses and other structures are gone. Where there was a thick growth of blackberry bushes and weeds, there's now a muddy plain being prepared for development.

The long-awaited Rose Garden housing project is finally taking its first visible steps toward becoming reality.

New Home Company, which has offices in Orange County and Roseville, plans to redevelop the property as a housing project that is expected to include 29 single family homes, 50 senior condominium units and six below-market housing cottages. The purchase also includes the rights to the previously approved plans for the Rose Garden project.

New Home representatives don't expect the construction to interfere significantly with traffic on Doherty Drive

Construction will likely continue over several phases, but the first homes are expected to be sold in 2014.

The 16.8-acre property on Doherty Drive is located across from Hall Middle School and near Redwood High School and downtown Larkspur shopping and restaurants and the Lark Theater.

The real construction on the Niven property begins just as construction wrapped up on the new Twin Cities Police headquarters across the street.