Deephaven's Road Work Wraps Up Just as the Cottagewood Store Closes for the Season

By the time the Cottagewood General Store hands out its last candy of the year on October 31, the road out front should be in restoration. The City of Deephaven's October 9 project update says CenterPoint Energy has finished installing gas mains in the final phase of its work. The update also says crews were pressure testing the new mains so they could go into service, and that roadway restoration on Cottagewood Road was expected to start the week of October 12. Nineteen days after that, the store at 20280 Cottagewood Avenue holds its Halloween and Closing Day from 4 to 7 p.m.

So the end of the construction season and the end of the store's season land in the same short stretch of fall. Most of what changed in Deephaven this summer went underground, and the rest comes back in 2027, before the store opens again.

Three Weeks in October, Day by Day

The calendar for the rest of the month runs like this, pulled from the city's update and the store's posted schedule:

• Week of October 12: In Phase 3 of the city street project, contractor Astech shapes and fine-grades the gravel base and places the first lift of asphalt. Cottagewood Road restoration is expected to begin after CenterPoint's gas work.
• Week of October 19: The final surface layer of asphalt is expected on Phase 3. After the first lift, Astech starts placing topsoil behind the curb and through disturbed areas.
• Saturday, October 31: The Cottagewood Store's Halloween and Closing Day, which the store calls "a festive sendoff" with "candy, costumes, and one last visit before we close for the year."

The final weeks were supposed to come earlier. The city's third-quarter newsletter projected Phase 3 for August 31 through October 9. October 9 is the date of the update that put first asphalt a week later. That's a slip of roughly two weeks on a project that began June 8. Phases 1, 2 and 4 are now listed as functionally complete and in punch-list work.

Why the Streets Were Ground Up Rather Than Torn Out

If the street project looked different from a typical reconstruction, that's because it was. The city used full-depth reclamation, which grinds the existing pavement and base in place into a stronger subgrade and then covers it with a new surface. It doesn't haul the old road away. Where drainage fell short, crews also replaced storm sewer pipe, added curb and gutter in select spots, and adjusted road elevations.

That method explains the summer's rhythm. Each phase was planned to take six weeks or less, from pavement removal to final restoration. The tightest moment for driveways came during concrete curb work, when access was unavailable for about five days while the concrete cured. It also explains why yards still look rough in mid-October. Final turf restoration, by seed or sod, comes only after the last layer of pavement.

The gas work ran on its own schedule because it isn't a city project. CenterPoint's project page lists Cottagewood Road and Minnetonka Boulevard. The first closure ran from Carsonwood Avenue to the Lake Minnetonka Regional Trail, and later phases covered the Deephaven Elementary stretch, Carsonwood Avenue and Minnetonka Boulevard, and finally Cottagewood Road west of Vine Hill Road, with that last phase estimated to run until fall 2026. After the mains go in, CenterPoint connects each property's service line, usually excavating near the outside meter. It may also ask homeowners with inside meters to schedule a move to an outside meter. Final restoration typically stays on site for a few weeks after other construction ends.

What Closes on October 31

The store shutting for the winter is a different kind of change from the road work, and its history explains why it gets a party. It opened in 1895 as Ralph M. Chapman's grocery, serving cottage and hotel guests. When it closed and went up for sale in 1995, neighbors organized to save it, and the Cottagewood Community Foundation formed in 1998. The Foundation, a nonprofit, still owns and runs it. Per the city, it sells food, beverages, ice cream, baked goods, coffee drinks, gifts and apparel. FOX 9 told the rescue story in a Maury's Stories segment and described the store today as a nonprofit and a community event venue.

The 2026 season opened May 2 and runs through Closing Day on October 31, with daily hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. The calendar in between shows how much of Cottagewood's year runs through one building:

That July mini golf night needed its own city approval, a story we covered earlier this year. Every one of those events happened this year with Cottagewood Road under construction, which put a lot of neighborhood traffic on a street that was also one of the city's busiest work zones.

What Doesn't Close

This part has the most bearing on the months between Closing Day and next May. Four pieces of work keep going after the store locks up.

More city streets. The 2026 project covered about five miles. The city calls it the first phase of a larger Capital Improvement Plan to repair at least nine miles of roadway currently in poor or failing condition. The city's newsletter says this year's street project and the associated area projects are repairing six of the nine miles flagged in the 2024 Road Ratings Survey, with the remaining three miles set for repair over the next three to five years.

Xcel's power line. Xcel Energy plans to replace an overhead power line running from Shorewood through part of Deephaven. The poles and lines come in 2027, and tree clearing and site preparation happen this fall. That puts tree work on the route in the same season the paving crews wrap up.

Northome Road gas work. CenterPoint lists Northome Road for 2027, at about three weeks plus restoration.

Fiber. Midco is building a high-speed fiber network across the city, mostly by directional drilling with some localized digging. The city says the goal is service available to every Deephaven resident by the end of 2026. The city is also clear that this covers only the main network. Homeowners who want service arrange the connection to their house with Midco directly. Midco's Deephaven page sends residents to an address-level availability check and offers preregistration where service hasn't arrived yet. The page itself says both "coming soon" and "here," so the address check is the real answer. The company says the network can deliver symmetrical speeds up to 5 Gbps, with plans depending on the address. Its November 2024 announcement put Deephaven among 18 Lake Minnetonka communities and more than 36,000 homes and businesses slated for service by 2028.

Here's a side-by-side view of where each project stands:

The Parks Get Their Own Winter Work

The city's parks have smaller projects lined up for the cold months, though none of them is final yet. At the September 21 council meeting, staff recommended Excel Lawn and Landscape's $32,750 bid to replace the Northome walking-path steps. The existing creosote-timber steps are roughly 50 years old, and staff described them as rotten, misaligned, slippery and unsafe. The proposal calls for stone steps, landings and a handrail. Staff said Excel could finish before winter. The same packet recommended $9,100 for Dakota Wood Grinding to turn about 500 cubic yards of city tree debris into chips for parks, including the entire Burton Park pathway, paid from the recycling fund. Both items sat on the consent agenda, and the posted packet doesn't record the vote.

The October 5 consent agenda carried two items that tie back to Cottagewood. One was a winter seasonal lighting plan for the Cottagewood Store, Thorpe Park and Village Hall Park. The other was base-course replacement on Cottagewood Road. Details and outcomes for both hadn't been published as of this writing. If the lighting plan goes forward, the store's corner would stay lit through a season when the store itself is dark.

Skating will depend on the weather. The city says the warming houses at Thorpe Park and Village Hall Park open in winter as conditions allow, with dates posted as the season gets closer. Until those dates appear, the next firm date on the Cottagewood calendar is October 31, from 4 to 7 p.m.

If this year's road, gas and fiber work has you wondering what the 2027 projects mean for a sale, a remodel or a move on your street, Ulrich Real Estate Group follows these timelines closely, and we're happy to talk them through. Our Deephaven neighborhood page is a good place to start.