urbanMSP

I wonder if we'll every hear anything about this project again.

They're still using those preposterous renderings showing an unbroken 3-block park. It would be nice for journalists to use images that reflect reality.

I've never understood the policy imperatives behind this ramp. There seems to be a genuine desire to make DTE into a walkable, mixed use area - as evidenced by the recent street re-design guidelines. There are already thousands of spaces in structured parking in the immediate vicinity, in addition to an LRT station servicing both rail lines, and solid bus connections. The ramp will accommodate a tiny fraction of stadium attendees a few days a year, compete with existing structures for Wells Fargo employee commuters, and actively work against the stated aims of walkability and mixed-use. And it required demolition of a historic structure to boot. Speciously justified as "the law" because language requiring a certain number of spaces was inserted in the stadium subsidy legislation, it didn't need to go here. In my view, the ramp is a policy failure. Now that it's aesthetic unpleasantness is visibly emerging and the prospect of it's accompanying residential tower is receding, I hope an honest accounting of this ramp can take place so that variations on it's sad theme won't be repeated downtown in the future.

The road to hell is paved with fights over parking.

They're still using those preposterous renderings showing an unbroken 3-block park. It would be nice for journalists to use images that reflect reality.

https://twitter.com/UrbanMSP/status/591279896539832320

^shoulda put a period before the @.

twitter

I don't understand why the City doesn't go back out for RFPs on this site, since Ryan is clearly not going to deliver what they originally proposed - and what got them the development rights. Or maybe go back to Mortenson and ask them if they are still interested in the deal.

We literally know nothing here.

I don't understand why the City doesn't go back out for RFPs on this site, since Ryan is clearly not going to deliver what they originally proposed - and what got them the development rights. Or maybe go back to Mortenson and ask them if they are still interested in the deal.

It's too bad the city never received any proposals from national developers. At least to get some fresh perspectives on the potential for this site. The city's RFP's are very skewed towards local developers , although I don't think it's really intentional. The city's time frame is too short for national developers to create a proposal, and there may be issues of not publicizing the RFP's adequately on a national scale.

Is it safe to say the original design of a greenish tower that was presented is not happening here?

Is it safe to say the original design of a greenish tower that was presented is not happening here?

We literally know nothing here.

My guess is this project is a complete start over

This is just getting more ridiculous by the month...

http://www.startribune.com/developer-ry ... 304748281/

Pretty much the summary of why this project is so FUBAR:

“Right or wrong, we now know the ramp is meant to accommodate the needs of the stadium. That is water under the bridge. We wish it would’ve had a little more flexibility, but we are now working under these constraints,” Barranco said.

Unless Ryan is able to come up with something spectacular in the next 6 months, I'm hoping for this:
“While I am optimistic about this condo deal, we can still take the land back," said Jacob Frey, Minneapolis City Councilman for the neighborhood.

Then, the city would have the leverage to say screw the Vikings and just use the ramp like we were originally promised.

Ryan has already put 1.8 million into this lot. That's a lot of incentive to come up with something that will give them a high return on investment. I don't know why you think another developer would do better here, under those circumstances.

EGHhh.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/m ... botic.html

That story seems to me a misreading of what was discussed in the previous article, which I took to suggest a residence with a robotic parking system, not an either/or.

The Strib article on this makes me think this is a midrise residential building with a parking system, not including a tower above the planned ramp. The Strib article kept talking about "site constraints" and "small site" -- this site is a full block. EGHhh indeed.

The site isn't a full block because most of the block is taken up by the parking ramp for the stadium. Originally, there was going to be an additional level of parking constructed on top of that ramp for use by the apartment tower, which would go in front of the ramp along 4th. The Vikings blocked adding another level of parking, so now everything has to fit along the (maybe quarter block?) parcel along 4th.

(Sorry, I'm at work—otherwise I'd dig up some links for you to better explain it)

How can the Vikings block that? I thought that was part of the original agreement? Plus, the Vikings should have no right to block this.

The Vikings are blocking it only by proxy via the MSFA. As we discussed a long ways upthread when the old building on that corner was being demolished without so much as a cursory historical review by the HPC, the stadium legislation written over in StP has a lot of language that supersedes any city policy that would otherwise influence the development on these blocks. While the Vikings/MSFA don't literally control this entire block and the development upon/usage of that parking ramp, they effectively do so via the legislation.

Ryan wanted to add another level to the ramp and allow hotel/apartment users to simply drive up the ramp to the top level, but the MSFA argued (successfully, somehow) that the potential traffic of those couple hundred users—who in all likelihood would do everything they possibly could to avoid the ramp on game days—would adversely affect the ingress/egress of the VIPs who get to park in the ramp for Vikings games. It's forehead-slapping insane, to be honest, but [apparently] legally watertight.