Downtown Minneapolis - News & General Topics

[grant1simons2]

I'm on the same page. The question is who do I push for this to happen? Frey can only do so much...

[FISHMANPET]

How do we just throw the entire zoning book in the trash and start over...

But yeah... I think Bender is enough of a policy wonk that she's actually interested in zoning stuff. Frey's certainly good, but he's very much a big picture picture on the front page of the newspaper kind of guy.

But yeah, reading through minimum lot sizes for residential makes me want to vomit. Wonder why everything is 6 floor whole block apartment buildings? Because that's all you can build!

[grant1simons2]

I think that we should work together to find what's really wrong in our zoning codes currently. And yes add a way to beautify the 1000 sq ft retail space. I was talking to the guys at MPLS/STP Clothing and they said they've been looking for 1,500 sq ft of retail in North Loop or downtown (anywhere with "gravy" foot traffic were their exact words). But its been tough. I think also some developers need to cut down on the extensive amount of luxury amenities they're adding. That would help as well. Especially looking at the 360 Nicollet proposal. I could see where they could cut down to make room for small retail bays.

[FISHMANPET]

You can come here (https://forum.streets.mn/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1008) and complain about zoning with me.

[MNdible]

Zoning is not driving the things you hate. Its economies of scale and efficiencies and preferences of developers.

Yes, I suppose you could make a new law that would require small retail spaces. But is that really the answer to this problem?

[FISHMANPET]

If the problem is defined as "not enough small retail spaces" then I don't really see a problem with requiring smaller retail spaces, if it's decided that's a thing that we want. Although my general preference is to raise taxes on the Thing You Don't Like and/or lower taxes or subsidize the Thing You Do Like. But generally because that's easier to administer than requiring that X and Y be created. But in this case the opposite might be true. It would be kind of difficult to keep an accurate inventory of every commercial building in the city and how big their retail spaces are, and then say every space of less than 1000 feet contributes .5x the tax and everything greater than 10,000 square feet contributes 1.5x and then you'd have to figure out how much of the "value" of each property each retail space is contributing. But you could in theory change the tax burden so that a landlord could derive the same profit out of 10x1000 sqft spaces as they could out of 1x10,000 sqft space, because even though the rent per sqft would be lower with smaller spaces, the tax burden could be lower as well, leading to it evening out.

[mattaudio]

MNdible, you have a point regarding scale and efficiency for developers. But why is that the case? The root of that is corporatist structures in society, many broader than the Minneapolis zoning code, which favor large developers/lenders and disfavor the small-time developer. A century ago, we were building little storefronts on any corner with more-than-average pedestrian density in the city. People just copied what worked. And then over time, there was a proper market feedback loop to drive incremental intensification of land use.

But I don't know how we get to that, and I'm not sold on the stick method of regulating it into existence. But maybe some carrots -- density bonuses, parking waivers, or even some outright subsidies/tax credits in a few places -- would be enough add to this critical segment of the storefront market in Minneapolis.

[contrast]

Zoning is not driving the things you hate. Its economies of scale and efficiencies and preferences of developers.

Yes, I suppose you could make a new law that would require small retail spaces. But is that really the answer to this problem?

-1

[grant1simons2]

I never said to make a law. I said to incentivize it.

[xandrex]

It would be kind of difficult to keep an accurate inventory of every commercial building in the city and how big their retail spaces are, and then say every space of less than 1000 feet contributes .5x the tax and everything greater than 10,000 square feet contributes 1.5x and then you'd have to figure out how much of the "value" of each property each retail space is contributing.

Not only would this be difficult, it would also punish places like Target, Whole Foods, and Lunds & Byerlys that offer what is currently some of the most solid (and necessary) retail to sustain what downtown population we have.

I think the best way to get smaller retail spaces is to actually get more people living downtown. We don't need a bunch of small, cutesy shops unless there are people living there. The market will respond. And if it's being sluggish, we can find ways to incentivize it.

[bapster2006]

$1200 per square foot sale in the Carlyle.

http://m.startribune.com/business/30657 ... =/business

[HiawathaGuy]

I just filled out the survey.

Park Board, city launch interactive map for downtown plans
http://www.journalmpls.com/news-feed/pa ... town-plans

http://maptionnaire.com/en/478/

[Wedgeguy]

Thanks for that post. I did my survey also.

[mister.shoes]

That was a really clever way to do a survey.

[David Greene]

Oh wow, that's fantastic! This is the kind of thing we need to do more of in our planning.

It's totally addicting to read the other comments. Nice that you can comment on others' work too.

Now, the question is whether anyone will USE the treasure of information here.

[Wedgeguy]

There are file drawers full of studies that were left in the drawers and totally ignored. We as decision makers seem to do a lot of that these days.

It would cost money to analyze data, but would probably save use 10 times the money we spent because we would probably do it correctly the first time instead of the 3rd, 6th, or 10th time.

[grant1simons2]

New signage proposed for the Lumber Exchange looks beautiful

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 142708.pdf

[mattaudio]

Is Trieste Café no longer there?

[Viktor Vaughn]

Trieste is still there. And it's still the best lunch downtown.

[EOst]

I think the city will want to keep buildings fronting Washington in this area. This is the first impression many will get when they get off of 35W into DT. We already have a sea of parking lots that the city is trying to get built up. This is one of the Gateways to DT. Just looking at the opposite side of 35 in the 7 corners area says to not let them tear down, it will be visual blight.

Bobby and Steve's has filed an application for demolition with the HPC for 1207 Washington (the Halloween/florist/whatever building).