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Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: March 10th, 2015, 6:30 pm
by John
Looking forward to the installation of cubist-like decorative mesh design on the outside. When that goes up it's going to look really great!

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: March 10th, 2015, 8:30 pm
by Aville_37
I agree - more lively than before. Now I wish City Center would at least follow suit and redo the cladding over its parking deck facing Hennepin.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: March 18th, 2015, 6:49 pm
by grant1simons2
Walked through today. The lighting on the outside of Kierans looks great! Led strips. On the inside they've started laying down the tile on the city center skyway side

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 3rd, 2015, 2:31 pm
by twincitizen

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 3rd, 2015, 2:49 pm
by acs
Lego land? Toys R Us flagship store? Those would fit well here. Lol JK.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 3rd, 2015, 3:13 pm
by acs
On a more serious note, one thing I do think would be great somewhere in this area would be Lucky Strike Bowling. Basically a far more upscale bowling alley focused more on drinking and entertainment than bowling. I went to the one in Phoenix and it was one of the few things I liked about that Metro. It seemed like it took up a lot of space though (I'm getting 21k sq ft by rough google maps estimates).

http://www.bowlluckystrike.com/

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 3rd, 2015, 4:30 pm
by grant1simons2
There was a series of pictures on the Finance and Commerce flickr page. It was all the training facility though so I didn't think you guys would be interested ;) I can't wait to see the progress on this when I get back. It looked great on Hennepin at night. Especially the entrance. This is one of my favorite projects right now actually.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 3rd, 2015, 4:51 pm
by Wedgeguy
Nice to see the screen being put up and there as several section that are in place. Helps to give the project some much needed depth. Got to say I really like what they have done. While it is not turning a sow's ear into a silk purse, it does really energize the area much better than the Block E Disneyland façade. Now if they can just land some great tenants and fill the second level with businesses that can thrive I'll be elated.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 3rd, 2015, 4:57 pm
by grant1simons2
The screens are going up!?!? :D :D :D :D :D

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 3rd, 2015, 4:58 pm
by Lancestar2
Lego land? Toys R Us flagship store? Those would fit well here. Lol JK.
How cool would it be to get an urban Best Buy here? I think it would be an amazing fit to have a much condensed size store. To bad they probably are not interested though... Or maybe Circuit City! havent shopped there in a while but they still must be doing good right? ( :lol: )

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 3rd, 2015, 6:37 pm
by Wedgeguy
If they can put a Best Buy on the third floor of the MOA, I think that they could do a smaller store minus the large appliances on the second level of the Mayo Square. There will still be downtowners that need computers, Geek Squad, TVs ,and small appliances plus other smaller items that they carry.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 4th, 2015, 7:03 pm
by Minneboy
I've been saying for years that Best Buy and Target should focus on smaller urban stores and even kiosks in some places. Not everyone has the internet or even smart phones. I've also been saying it for the Uptown area, still mad that Best Buy left that area 20 years ago. Now that Target is starting to do this my hope is that Best Buy will follow, if for nothing else for them to stay relative.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 4th, 2015, 9:08 pm
by Wedgeguy
Not to get off topic, but didn't BB start a smaller store concept before the great recession? What happened to it, or did it get put on the back burner when they were losing their a$$e$.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 4th, 2015, 9:33 pm
by grant1simons2
And Target made a lot of their cuts to focus more on urban stores.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 5th, 2015, 5:45 pm
by maxbaby
I think they just did a bunch of "Best Buy Mobile" stores which they just started closing recently.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 6th, 2015, 10:30 am
by xandrex
^I don't think Best Buy is closing too many of their Mobile-branded stores. They just closed up a bunch of their Canadian stores (Future Shop and the like) and there was speculation some would be replaced with Best Buy Mobile stores nearby.
And Target made a lot of their cuts to focus more on urban stores.
They made cuts and they're focusing on smaller stores, but they aren't really related. Target just had a lot of slack in their management structure that needed to be cut. Unfortunate, but maybe for the best. At the same time, the new CEO saw that a lot of future growth is in urban areas rather than the 'burbs. That's not to say they see the suburbs dying, but they're pretty well saturated out there. Now with an influx of affluence into cities, they've gotta grab some of that (and lock young city folks down so they'll shop at the big box Bullseye when they have kids and move to Woodbury). Same time for these decisions, different reasons.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 6th, 2015, 3:54 pm
by HiawathaGuy
I think they just did a bunch of "Best Buy Mobile" stores which they just started closing recently.
Best Buy closed 66 Best Buy Mobile locations over the past 12 months - those stores were under performing locations, typically in horrible strip malls.

As for Best Buy big box stores - there are several layouts that are used throughout the country. There are many urban format stores, like in the John Hancock building in Chicago, or several in NYC and San Fran. As the company continues to stabilize and evaluates its current leases, there will be random big box store locations that will probably close. But any new stores - whether urban or suburban, are another year or two off - if at all.

The focus instead will be to make the current brick & mortar stores work smarter and adjust them to meet the changing demand of the shopper. There's very little appetite from senior leadership (or the board) to open anything new.

So, as much as I wish (and pray) that there'd be a downtown Minneapolis location - it's not on anyone's radar.
But if the company continues to perform and the markets stay favorable... I could see one happen in time for the Super Bowl.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 7th, 2015, 8:19 am
by twinkess
https://i.imgur.com/joqq5L5.jpg

Screens are up over Keirans. This was the last section they started yet first to finish. Perhaps to reduce disruption to the bar?

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 7th, 2015, 8:27 am
by twincitizen
Likely, considering Keirans already sued them over disruptions to their business. Keiran's absolutely needs to be at 100% strength by Twins home opener next Monday.

Re: Mayo Clinic Square

Posted: April 7th, 2015, 2:40 pm
by TroyGBiv
I can't believe how much better this building looks!