Portland Tower - 516 S. 8th St.

[Wedgeguy]

Looking at the development map in the Journal, are the Portland Tower and this on the same piece of land? Who controls or owns this property??

[twincitizen]

Same piece of land. The "Portland Tower" was just a fantasy of the previous owner. Stanton has already purchased the property, so hopefully this moves forward soon. No approvals from the city yet, but I think they said this fall.

[HiawathaGuy]

Headed for approvals, starting 10/30.

Elliot Park condo tower poised for city review

Visual reminder:

[SixOneTwo]

http://www.journalmpls.com/news-feed/el ... ity-review

[go4guy]

Regarding the neighbor arguments. Are any of the windows on the south wall of Sexton for units? Or are those stairwells? Either way, the original plans called for a condo tower there, so I am not sure they can complain. And the Charity House will still have their alley. Hard for them to make a valid argument on someone building up to that alley. Do wish this was a bit taller and slimmer, but I think this is an appropriate height for this location.

[twincitizen]

Some of those windows almost certainly have to be for units. Fortunately, the Sexton has a U-shape with balconies facing that interior courtyard and large windows on the street-facing sides of the building. It'll have to be seen exactly what Stanton is asking for with setback variances. Extrapolating from that article, it sounds like Stanton wants a variance to reduce the interior setback to 4.5 feet (I'm unsure what the requirement is), and I'd guess that the Sexton is actually built on a 0' setback. The residents certainly have an argument in asking the city to deny the setback variance, or asking for another couple of feet, but they also need to consider that their building is non-conforming. "I was here first" isn't a very good argument.

We'll have to wait for the complete plans, but it appears that the units above the parking garage are actually set back a bit. The people who lose in this situation are those on the lower 3-4 floors of Sexton that would have a parking garage wall 4.5 feet from their window.

Sidebar: check out this awesome 2-story ground level unit in the Sexton: http://twincitiescondoshop.com/?mlsnum=4535335

EDIT: To answer wedgeguy below, no there isn't a public alley. There appears to be a private driveway into Aeon's property on that side of the block, but it doesn't continue through: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.9735362 ... e0!6m1!1e1

[Wedgeguy]

I thought there was an alley in between those two parcels. Save some room for a few skyway connections.

[John]

Maybe its the perspective of the rendering, but I hope they ask Stanton to refine the parking ramp to be a little less fortress and blank wall appearing and integrate better with the tower. I mean , with all the criticism of the "suburban looking" Kraus Anderson HQ a few blocks away...

[MotorCity2TwinCities]

I previously rented at the Sexton and can tell you that all of those windows facing South are in units. The hallways have no windows.

[FISHMANPET]

I don't remember, is Stanton asking to exceed the parking maximums for this building as well? I saw that on Twitter but I didn't have the time to dig in and investigate the claim.

[go4guy]

I don't remember, is Stanton asking to exceed the parking maximums for this building as well? I saw that on Twitter but I didn't have the time to dig in and investigate the claim.

Yes, but I think that is only because he needs to provide parking for the current Sexton building.

[Silophant]

Yeah, I read in one of the articles (Biz Journal?) that it does exceed the 1.6 spots/unit on its own, but not if the units for the Sexton are included. Which, honestly, seems perfectly reasonable. As far as I'm concerned, as long as he's not taking public funding, let him build as much parking as he thinks he needs. Maybe (hopefully) he finds that there's not as much demand as he thinks, and he'll propose and build less in the future.

[Nick]

CoW staff report:

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 132821.pdf

[Silophant]

Bike storage on all five above-ground parking levels. I feel like riding your bike down 5 floors of parking garage would be fun exactly once, then a tremendous PITA.

[twinkess]

Bike storage on all five above-ground parking levels. I feel like riding your bike down 5 floors of parking garage would be fun exactly once, then a tremendous PITA.

Possible they'd be expected to use the elevator instead?

[Silophant]

That didn't occur to me, but you're probably right.

[PhilmerPhil]

http://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/ ... e-at-home/

[bapster2006]

Article on the building:

http://m.bizjournals.com/twincities/mor ... -east.html

[Nathan]

I hate that they use the word tower, I just don't see this as tower, high-rise maybe, but not tower. There should be a certain aspect ratio achieved before tower is used and fuels the NIMBY flame.

[HiawathaGuy]

More images of the building.