urbanMSP

Oh man, seriously? They didn't even do any work on it. All they had to do was flip the building and they made more money then I'll ever see in my life.

Also, Hennepin County really dropped the ball on this thing.

Looks like the Holiday Inn Express is relocating to 317 2nd Ave S and gobbling up another parking lot. The hearing is first up during Monday's planning commission:

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/meetings/p ... S1P-142464

Ok... so it's a small parking lot and not very visible from any street, but still...

EDIT: The application summary:

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 142468.pdf

Digging that new font.

Hey look, a cornice.

Poor tourist are never going to find that hotel. Or if they do find it, it will be by driving down a bus-only lane.

On the plus side, if they need to apply for a building permit, they're in a prime location.

Those are some oldddd maps in the end

They must have tried to do this on the cheap with the conditions that had to be change in order for it to be approved. Looks like they have some revisions that needed to be done for this project. We can hope that they were enough to make it mediocre instead of appalling.

Hey look, a cornice.

Sure, kind of. On another note,

Glad they've found a use for the old City Center awning.

Hey look, a cornice.

Sure, kind of. On another note,

Glad they've found a use for the old City Center awning.

The cornice is on the old building, what will be interesting is what they do with their addition. Will the addition be integrated into the old building, or just some floors slapped on for square footage with no worry how bad it looks from the north and east. The city was not impressed with what they saw in the application process. Saw many things that needed to be changed for the approval to be made.

It says an addition of 8 floors, but it looks like it's a reno of the existing 8-floor office building. Which is it?

Both. There's currently an eight story building on the site with a surface parking lot behind it. They are renovating the building and adding a full-height annex on the current parking lot footprint.

Gotcha....that makes sense.

Approved

I'm curious what they actually approved. There were a lot of issues that were dangling that needed to be fixed before they would approve it.

Looks like they approved reducing the north set back to 0 feet. Also, they approved the 8-story addition with the condition that blank walls are under 25 feet and other conditions.

Walked behind this site last week and was amazed how much space there will still be for an alley that is on the city property that will allow windows to the north east. Not sure what they plan to do for rooms on the portion of the building that will face the Tri Tech building as that is a solid wall. Not sure that the windows would be a plus there. It looks like that have put stucco on the sides of the building so I would expect the same to be done to the addition as well. I hope that the city will get rid of the parking lot between their buildings and put in a pocket park instead.

Walked behind this site last week and was amazed how much space there will still be for an alley that is on the city property that will allow windows to the north east. Not sure what they plan to do for rooms on the portion of the building that will face the Tri Tech building as that is a solid wall. Not sure that the windows would be a plus there. It looks like that have put stucco on the sides of the building so I would expect the same to be done to the addition as well. I hope that the city will get rid of the parking lot between their buildings and put in a pocket park instead.

Here's a good example of Floors 3-8 room layout.

And renderings:

So they are basically picking up 30 rooms and a drop off with this addition//

looks like 3 abstract seagulls on the front. It looks a bit odd IMO. Plus the logo looks a little small, but I guess nobody wants a hotel that screams budget, they rather slip in the backdoor and not have their higher class friends notice? eh