Stadium Parking Ramp Development Site - 25 stories / 294'

[John]

It looks good enough to "pass" and fits in. Makes a decent transitional building from Wells Fargo to the Stadium. Not hugely exciting, but I like it and hope it gets built.

[min-chi-cbus]

Sometimes we need to remember that we're Minneapolis, not Chicago or New York. This is a helluva building for a city like ours (or even NYC or Chicago) and we're lucky to be having so much interest from developers like we've been seeing the past couple of years.

Not bad at all, and I expect LPM especially to spruce it up a bit before the final version.

[RailBaronYarr]

Still wondering if there's any chance whatsoever for portions the N/E/W block-faces to have some store-fronts or something better than peering into parking. They don't need to be anything special... even just a door facing outward on each corner would help immensely and barely cut into parking capacity/movements..

[Rich]

Ryan has said that they want the entire north side to be built to allow conversion to street-level commercial uses. Most of the east side will be built to accomodate such uses right from the start. I think the only place with no chance of store fronts is the west side.

[Nathan]

it's totally a Minneapolis building, it looks nice! I think it definitely steers the neighborhood in the right direction, as well as adding amenities that would make other developers more comfortable adding their projects into the fold. I think it'll look nice behind the Guthrie from the river.

[mattaudio]

Reminds me of...

[twincitizen]

Here's another photo from Sam Black at MSP Biz Journal:

[John]

^^^ Funny , you can already tell it looks much better than either Nic on Fifth or the Eclipse even with the obscured and distorted renderings. The green tinted glass will have a nice pleasant appearance along the park.

[Anondson]

Love the slender look. You can have full city block with four quarter-block development of slender towers like and still feel airy.

[RailBaronYarr]

Ryan has said that they want the entire north side to be built to allow conversion to street-level commercial uses. Most of the east side will be built to accomodate such uses right from the start. I think the only place with no chance of store fronts is the west side.

I missed that, but this is (mostly) excellent news. I'll definitely take most of 3 of 4 block faces activated. Big win, and the tower looks decent as well. I'm not worried about a wall effect. I think the new stadium will pull the eye and dominate the feel of the area, to be honest.

[City slicker]

Lets hope so, because the two wells towers are extremely wide. About the width of a super walmart each. And that parking ramp will be pretty wide too. I'm glad this tower is skinny, but I don't think people realize just how wide and blocky these three structures together are going to be. I think it will help if the wells towers are more in the 250 foot range instead of 300 feet. Otherwise we just started another Great Wall of china.

[Avian]

Sometimes urban walls are cool.

[Wedgeguy]

The office towers are set back to the middle of the block from 3rd and 4th. The residential, on either side, will not be as tall and will allow some more light to reach the street levels.

I like the wall along central park west

[John]

My thoughts on this parking ramp project are changing. Perhaps we don't want too many "iconic" landmarks going up around the park vying for attention. The dramatic geometry of the Stadium to the east and the view of the Mpls City Hall tower to the west should really be the natural focal points of reference. The filler buildings along the sides of the park should defer to this and having similar heights to create a sense of visual continuity between the two. That could turn out to be quite beautiful.

[kregger22]

It seems this tower has been anointed as being selected already. Have I missed something, because I was under the impression the city will decide this Thursday between this tower and whatever Mortenson has that has not yet been made public - is that not correct?

[Silophant]

You're right. The decision hasn't been made yet. I think the reason we're all discussing the Ryan proposal and ignoring Mortenson's is just because we actually know things about Ryan's, and have (distorted) renderings, whereas literally the only thing we know about Mortenson's plan is that it's a 300-room hotel. Also, Ryan's seems more likely, given that the city wants something impressive here and Ryan's is the bigger project.

[lordmoke]

It seems this tower has been anointed as being selected already. Have I missed something, because I was under the impression the city will decide this Thursday between this tower and whatever Mortenson has that has not yet been made public - is that not correct?

That is technically correct. However, I don't think anyone believes that the likelihood of the city selecting a Mortenson's proposal over Ryan's is very high.

Side by side:
Mortenson:
-Marriott hotel, 300 rooms
-$63M
-No floor count yet, but probably not more than 15 based on room count

Ryan:
-Radisson (local company) Red (possible flagship of new concept) hotel, 150 rooms
-272 apartments
-$101M
-27 floors

It's also telling that Mortenson didn't bother to present to the neighborhood association. Yes, they had a party. But they couldn't be bothered to send one single person?

[mplser]

I thought mortenson and ryan were teaming up on this tower?

[John]

Ryan's project brings in more property tax revenue with a more intensive use for the parking ramp. The plan includes complete street frontage with retail along one side. Helps achieve the city's goal of increasing downtown residents. Brings in a trendy new hotel brand from a local corporation. The writing's on the wall...

[Silophant]

I thought mortenson and ryan were teaming up on this tower?

Ryan and Magellan are teaming up, AFAIK.