Downtown Parking Facilities

Downtown - North Loop - Mill District - Elliot Park - Loring Park
gpete
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Re: Downtown Parking

Postby gpete » April 22nd, 2015, 10:39 am

The fees for violating Minn. Statutes 169.34 (parking offenses) are set at the state level... not sure why this would apply to parking violations in private garages, but the state is definitely involved in this type of thing.

Remember the red light cameras in Minneapolis? Supreme Court shut them down because Minneapolis didn't have authorization from the state to implement a law that varied from the rest of the state. Uniformity across municipalities is required under state law when it comes to traffic enforcement (unless a municipality is specifically authorized to deviate from the norm) (Minn. Statutes 169.022).

MNdible
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Re: Downtown Parking

Postby MNdible » April 22nd, 2015, 12:20 pm

As I understand it, it's the old difference between a fee and a tax.

A fee is supposed to cover the costs necessary to execute the thing that has the fee applied to it. A good example would be a building permit. In rough terms, the amount of the fee for that permit is supposed to cover the cost of doing the inspections and paperwork that go along with the fee.

The city could add a parking fee if it needed to repair the parking ramps that the fee is being charged in. But if you add a cost to all ramps (public and private), and then use it to pay for something unrelated to the parking itself, then it's really a tax, which can only be levied with state permission.

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Re: Downtown Parking

Postby twincitizen » April 29th, 2015, 2:33 pm

Parking Pro-tip / Urbanist Confession: You can park free in the evenings in many "commercial loading zones". There are a handful around the North Loop for sure that are a very easy walk to Target Field. Suburbanites don't touch 'em because the signage is intimidating and there's no meter to feed.

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Re: Downtown Parking

Postby Wedgeguy » April 29th, 2015, 2:41 pm

Parking Pro-tip / Urbanist Confession: You can park free in the evenings in many "commercial loading zones". There are a handful around the North Loop for sure that are a very easy walk to Target Field. Suburbanites don't touch 'em because the signage is intimidating and there's no meter to feed.
Quit giving away my secret spots!!

grant1simons2
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby grant1simons2 » August 27th, 2015, 11:55 am

"Investor lines up deal to buy parking lots to keep them as parking lots until next ice age" **

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... ssler.html

** Possibly misleading title

lordmoke
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby lordmoke » August 27th, 2015, 12:17 pm

God dammit.

kirby96
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby kirby96 » August 27th, 2015, 12:17 pm

That is extremely frustrating.

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seamonster
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby seamonster » August 27th, 2015, 1:40 pm

"The preservation of these lots would be good news for commuters. Downtown Minneapolis has been losing inexpensive surface parking lots at a fast clip due to new development projects, which could make spaces more sparse and drive up parking rates."

Well, there's some forward-thinking, insightful journalism. Save the endangered surface parking lots!

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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby MNdible » August 27th, 2015, 1:47 pm

That is definitely a bummer, but at the price that they're paying for it, I wonder if they're not viewing this is as a short term hold. I'd be interested in seeing somebody who's real estate savvy run the numbers on this, but I'm thinking you can't justify paying that much for surface parking lots unless you're going to flip them.

amiller92
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby amiller92 » August 27th, 2015, 1:56 pm

"The preservation of these lots would be good news for commuters. Downtown Minneapolis has been losing inexpensive surface parking lots at a fast clip due to new development projects, which could make spaces more sparse and drive up parking rates."

Well, there's some forward-thinking, insightful journalism. Save the endangered surface parking lots!
Ugh. I don't even think those two particular lot fill up with daytime commuters (based on casual observation) and are only really fully used when there are evening events.

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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby Silophant » August 27th, 2015, 2:00 pm

That is definitely a bummer, but at the price that they're paying for it, I wonder if they're not viewing this is as a short term hold. I'd be interested in seeing somebody who's real estate savvy run the numbers on this, but I'm thinking you can't justify paying that much for surface parking lots unless you're going to flip them.
That's kinda what I'm thinking. There's 455 spots, so assuming they bump the price up to $10/day, they'd be looking at just over 14 years to break even on their $16MM investment. That's ignoring both event parking income and all operations and maintenance costs. Maybe they're just playing the long game, but...
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby Tiller » August 27th, 2015, 4:09 pm

what about if they wanted to build parking ramps? I'd image that would be even less cost-effective than keeping them as parking lots, but just to be thorough.

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Nick
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby Nick » August 27th, 2015, 4:51 pm

Huh. Literally just yesterday I went to Lisa Goodman's monthly constituent lunch thing at St. Thomas, and there were honchoes from four local companies doing a Q&A about development for most of it. Bob Lux was there, and someone asked about those parcels, and he'd said (paraphrasing) that he was too old to do a $300 million dollar deal at this point, so they were trying to sell the properties to a national developer who would. Gotta say what ya gotta say I guess, but that was what, 24 hours before the news of the deal broke?
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acs
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby acs » August 27th, 2015, 9:33 pm

"Investor lines up deal to buy parking lots to keep them as parking lots until next ice age" **

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... ssler.html

** Possibly misleading title
I'm unreasonably mad about this. "Parking focused developer", what the hell is this crap? Better question; why do we still allow companies like this to exist and own land in the city?

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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby Silophant » August 27th, 2015, 9:39 pm

Because, despite what certain internet commenters believe, the US is still a free country, not Soviet Russia.
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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby Anondson » August 27th, 2015, 9:46 pm

It comes up every now and again, but taxing the land instead of the structures on it would change this land owner behavior.

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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby Tyler » August 27th, 2015, 9:55 pm

It's not a "parking focused developer". Its a real estate investment trust that focuses on parking properties. Realizing capital appreciation by selling assets is part of the long term strategy. When someone is ready to build here I'm sure they'll listen to offers.
Towns!

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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby PhilmerPhil » August 27th, 2015, 10:19 pm

OK, so if this really is a situation where we end up with these surface parking lots sticking around for another 5+ years, I wonder if the change of ownership would allow the city to compel the new owner into adhering to the city's surface parking beautification requirements.

http://startribune.com/local/minneapolis/285687961.html

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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby Wedgeguy » August 28th, 2015, 7:18 am

OK, so if this really is a situation where we end up with these surface parking lots sticking around for another 5+ years, I wonder if the change of ownership would allow the city to compel the new owner into adhering to the city's surface parking beautification requirements.

http://startribune.com/local/minneapolis/285687961.html
Will hate to see this as the book end of the Nicollet block on the north end of Hennepin, that has sat dormant for 30 years. The Short Family property near the convention center that has nothing done to it for 40+ years. In my mind this does not bode well for south Hennepin.

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Re: Downtown Minneapolis General Topics & Development Map

Postby amiller92 » August 28th, 2015, 9:22 am

Because, despite what certain internet commenters believe, the US is still a free country, not Soviet Russia.
In Soviet Russia, parking lots own you!

(sorry, Yakov Smirnoff auto-response)


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