urbanMSP

Not much to go on here, but F&C has a paywalled article:

http://finance-commerce.com/2014/02/opu ... -on-fifth/

Ritz block is tagged at the bottom.. This is very interesting!

500 thou sq office, 300 residential that's a lot of office....hmmm they must have landed a big fish

Oooooh, 'block wide', sounds very elegant.

Can anyone who has a paid subscription post the text here?

I'm assuming the 300 apts and 500K office numbers are from behind the paywall? The Ritz lot itself is just under 110K sq ft, so even if they built a giant box from edge to edge (which seems unlikely) this would still be at least 11 stories. Awesome news. Also fits right in with some of the rumors that have been floating around.

The supertall rumors?

If it's a block wide, let's hope it's not a block deep also. With all of the new housing in the area let's hope they keep some of the block for a nice plaza.

It's not in print today. I'll add a blurb in here tomorrow afternoon if nothing else leaks before then.

Would the standard configuration for a large mixed-use structure like this be to put the housing atop the commercial or vice-versa? I think the Nicollet had housing on the highest floors but I could be wrong.

According to the article, they showed a rendering at a NAIOP panel in Golden Valley, but declined to release a copy of the rendering afterward -- there isn't a description of the height or shape of anything either. There would be two distinct projects, so presumably one mostly residential and the other primarily office space. No applications filed yet, and active planning probably won't be happening until the Nic on 5th project wraps up.

The supertall rumors?

Not necessarily supertall, but there's been a fair amount of talk regarding a (or several) large office/ residential/ retail mixed projects similar to what's hinted at by the article.

So, very slim chances of a very tall structure, then? Both in the same tower would be fun and exciting...

Great news. let's hope it's the a great crown for the Northern end of Nicollet. Imagine the north side of Nic will be totally developed by 2017? from awful lots in 2013!

500 thou sq office, 300 residential that's a lot of office....hmmm they must have landed a big fish

Yes, It sounds like they have a major anchor tenant in mind. My biggest hope is they have lots of retail along Nicollet Mall. I would love to see the Washington/Hennepin/Nicollet Mall area become a major retail node. Happy to see this block redeveloped! I've been waiting about 25 years

Opus has owned the land since 1986. Damn talk about taking your time developing it. http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... polis.html

Ha! Ribfest!

Also, this isn't the first time they've 'studied' developing this parcel. Hold the excitement.

The article seems to indicate that the 300 unit apartment tower would be 30 stories, and that the office portion would be a different tower? Am I reading that right? If so, how tall would a potential half block building be that has 500k sq ft? Not to mention that it probably wouldnt be the entire 1/2 block so it doesnt butt up against the residential tower.

yea they owned the old powers block since mid 80's too. always bugged me they sat forever on this land. north mall looked desolate for decades.

The article seems to indicate that the 300 unit apartment tower would be 30 stories, and that the office portion would be a different tower? Am I reading that right? If so, how tall would a potential half block building be that has 500k sq ft? Not to mention that it probably wouldnt be the entire 1/2 block so it doesnt butt up against the residential tower.

Marquette Plaza, right next door, says on its website that it's 523k sq feet (Though I believe that's total, not just leasable, and that it includes the vaults in the basement). So... 13-14 stories. Hopefully it wouldn't be the whole half-block.

Honestly, though, even another 222 Hennepin would be better than the full-block parking lot we have.

The recent 500K SF towers of Target HQ, Ameriprize Financial (formerly American Express), and Piper Jaffray that were all built during the late 90's and 2000 were all on half-block sized lots and were all about 30 floors. The other two projects that were NOT 30 floors were the 2nd Ameriprize Financial building (Tech maybe?) that takes up the full block and is a hulking 15 floors, and the other is the Dorsey & Whitney HQ at 225 South Sixth St on Nicollet Mall that's 26 floors and closer to 425K SF. Also, remember that the Xcel HQ next door is 212K SF and will rise 9 floors, and it takes up a very wide half block of space also, so even in the worse-case scenario you height-lovers out there (I'm kinda one) will still get (500/212 X 9 = 21 floors). One thing that I think potential height has in its favor is that the building will probably not be designed to block the residential component of this project right next to it, so other than some serious juxtapositioning or architectural wonders I'd expect this building to be on the slim side of 1/2 block....perhaps 1/3 or less of a full block -- 35-40 floors.

I read the article in BusinessJournals.com/TwinCities and I read it as two separate buildings: one 30-story residential tower and an office building of 500K SF. It also sounds like they do NOT have a tenant lined up, which is why they are releasing the news of this project without a rendering and without first going to the city for approvals: "Discussing the project with real estate professionals at this early stage, like Opus did, could help market it to prospective tenants."

On a personal note, this has been a block that I've had my eye on for at least 15 years now (John, you got me!) and although two large buildings (if it's indeed two and not one) is exciting I'm almost disappointed we're not talking about a truly ground-breaking, Earth-shattering project that's either very tall, very iconic, or both, especially considering that they've been sitting on this land for nearly 30 years and the cost paid for it back then ($7.5M), not including inflation.

BJ Article:
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... polis.html