North Loop Neighborhood

[seanrichardryan]

4 retail bays to combine into one Walgreen's!

[KML_1981]

4 retail bays to combine into one Walgreen's!

the neighborhood could use a walgreen's tbh

[grant1simons2]

The Washington first floor plan

http://www.thewashingtonmpls.com/upload ... r--sfw.jpg

[MNdible]

Do we think the "neighboring building not in sf numbers" is the extent of the space that SexWorld is going to take?

Also, interesting that they'd lease out that little chunk of 121A space, making the 121B space very unattractive for anybody else to lease.

[Silophant]

Yeah, "Neighboring Building" must be Sexworld. The image on their homepage has a "125 Bistro" placeholder sign on the corner, which must be the 125b space.

I'm trying to figure out what "lower floor" and "upper floor" mean on the second floor office plan. Maybe the annex building has significantly lower ceilings than the main building, such that the annex fourth floor lines up with the main building's third floor, but the annex second and third floors are a bit below and above the main second floor?

Edit: That appears to be how it works.

[spiker1017]

I noticed on my walk home that One on One bike shop looks to be renovating and mentioned the cafe was closed until completion. It also appeared the building next store was closed and had work going on (where Chrome was I think) - perhaps they are expanding into that space.

Also, 6th Ave (street with Black Sheep pizza, Smack Shack) is back open. The brick work looks good...happy to have that back open (until whatever renovations happen in the Duffy buildings).

[nBode]

I just biked down 6th yesterday; the stonework is really well done. A bit bumpy on a bike, but not unusable by any means, and it looks wonderful. Now, if only we could get more streets in the North Loop redone, get some trees planted, and open up a few more buildings for retail uses, this place would be a dream.

EDIT: we also need to make sure that when development occurs on the superblocks, the city reestablishes the cross street ROWs. Right now it is a huge pain to get around.

[MNdible]

In most cases, "reestablish" is the wrong word -- these are connections that never existed in the first place, largely because of the rail infrastructure that the neighborhood developed around.

But I agree with your underlying point, and am still upset that on the one big opportunity the city had to make a difference here (reconnecting 8th Ave from Washington to 2nd), the city punted and let Solhem build in that future ROW.

[EOst]

That's not entirely true--the North Loop had a much more regular grid in the late 19th century. That massive superblock north of Washington from 5th to 10th used to be split by 6th-9th Sts. The only superblocks in 1892 were the railyards blocks (now Riverstation) and the ones now split by tracks/the Cedar Lake Trail (and even those were connected in the original plats); the rest were created once new factories on the north side of Washington wanted rail access starting in the early 20th century.

(But yeah, getting around is hard.)

[Nick]

In most cases, "reestablish" is the wrong word -- these are connections that never existed in the first place, largely because of the rail infrastructure that the neighborhood developed around.

But I agree with your underlying point, and am still upset that on the one big opportunity the city had to make a difference here (reconnecting 8th Ave from Washington to 2nd), the city punted and let Solhem build in that future ROW.

I've brought this up a couple times (about the mid-superblock Washington Avenue proposal and also Legacy in the Mill District) and the response was that while there is a policy basis for, say, denying requests to vacate current ROW, we don't really have anything on the books to allow us to prevent a project if we think it could be in a future ROW.

[min-chi-cbus]

What about building a street now? How expensive is it to acquire the ROW to connect two streets a block apart? I'm assuming it's cost-prohibitive, but I have no idea to what degree.

[MNdible]

I've brought this up a couple times (about the mid-superblock Washington Avenue proposal and also Legacy in the Mill District) and the response was that while there is a policy basis for, say, denying requests to vacate current ROW, we don't really have anything on the books to allow us to prevent a project if we think it could be in a future ROW.

Yes, that's certainly true, which is why the action needs to happen at CPED long before stuff gets to the Planning Commission. These critical pieces of property need to be identified, discussions with landowners need to happen, and money needs to be set aside for eventual purchase. And the City Council needs to be the ones to empower CPED to do all of that.

I know that it's scary and messy, but in some of these cases, the city probably needs to step up and just use their powers of eminent domain.

For whatever reason, the other extension of 8th Avenue (between 3rd and 4th) seems to have been a much more deliberate process, perhaps because Schafer Richardson has a better grasp of the importance of these connections.

[Nick]

Yeah, I agree, and there is the very beginning of some policies that are moving that direction in the Downtown Public Realm Framework (not named by me) where there are some future connections identified in the North Loop and elsewhere:

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 180843.pdf (page 50)

A bit different then being given few million to do it, though.

[MNdible]

Interesting document.

I worry that we have a moment here that's passing us by, and if the city doesn't work quickly to get ahead of this, there will be major impediments (read: six story apartment blocks) that will forever prevent these critical connections. It's not like, say, we didn't quite get the mix of bike lanes and sidewalk amenities just right, where in ten years we can come back and spend some more money and fix it. Once you miss these opportunities, you don't get another shot at it.

[Sacrelicio]

That's not entirely true--the North Loop had a much more regular grid in the late 19th century. That massive superblock north of Washington from 5th to 10th used to be split by 6th-9th Sts. The only superblocks in 1892 were the railyards blocks (now Riverstation) and the ones now split by tracks/the Cedar Lake Trail (and even those were connected in the original plats); the rest were created once new factories on the north side of Washington wanted rail access starting in the early 20th century.

(But yeah, getting around is hard.)

Do you have a link to those maps? Would be interesting to see.

And I work in the North Loop and getting around can definitely be a pain. I'll take walks behind the Washington superblock and the only options are the pedestrian cut through at 7th or through the parking lot between TownePlace and the apartments which is pretty inconvenient. Even some more bike/ped pathways would be really helpful.

[EOst]

1892: http://geo.lib.umn.edu/collections/digi ... 2index.htm

Click on a tile to view a larger map.

[min-chi-cbus]

Is that supposed to be the map of the city from 1892? I didn't think half of that map was developed by 1892...

[seanrichardryan]

Well, platted streets aren't always actually built.

[Sacrelicio]

Is that supposed to be the map of the city from 1892? I didn't think half of that map was developed by 1892...

My block is undeveloped, kinda cool

[EOst]

Most of those streets only existed notionally; they might have been dirt paths or nothing at all. But platting them in advance kept them from being built upon.