urbanMSP

This one looks great, I think.

someone in the comments is trying to argue that concrete is more environmentally friendly than wood because wood means cutting down trees and trees are the lungs of the earth and give us shade. I can't tell if it's a troll or not.

The way I see it, building like this provides one way to sequester carbon and provide live+work space for people. Farm trees to produce buildings. I wonder how much acreage would be needed to grow and harvest enough trees to keep a supply pipeline large enough to feed a project like this in each mid-to-large metro area in the U.S. every year. Obviously it would take a while to prime the pipeline but over time there should be no need to have a net decrease in forested area due to building.

There is such an epidemic of mountian pine beetle killing trees out in the mountain west, especially British Columbia, I don't think we will need to farm trees for a long time for CLT/NLT.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/ ... osner-text

Imagine a billion cubic meters of rotting wood. We should be getting in there and using that wood.

No kidding. You don't have to go to BC to see the effect. Have you been to the Black Hills recently? They aren't so black anymore.
http://bhfra.org/mountain_pine_beetle.asp

Amazon in talks to rent the top two floors of T3.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... ooden.html

Gist:

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant would fill around 70,000 square feet on the sixth and seventh floors, according to multiple sources who declined to be named to protect business relationships. A move to T3 would likely happen next spring, according to those sources.

Based on the amount of space Amazon will be leasing, it could be adding as many as 350 people or more. On its career website, Amazon is hiring for 32 positions.

Finance and Commerce article includes this line:
Both Hines and JLL declined to name committed tenants, but Robertson said the building will have leases signed for 60 to 70 percent of the office space by the end of this year. Tenants will begin moving in early next year.

http://finance-commerce.com/2016/11/a-w ... -building/

I toured the building about a month ago and the leasing agents couldn't outwardly say who had leased the space but provided a few hints on the first floor retail.

They did mention when the article about Amazon taking a spot came out, negotiations became a lot easier for the rest of the building.

They said the first floor spots are going to be a Barre workout studio, hopefully a sandwich shop, and they were in the process of finalizing with a larger restaurant. The restaurant hints they gave me were that they have a few other spots in Minneapolis and fit in very well with the warehouse feel. My initial guess was the Bulldog, but I'm not sure they would go for a spot kind of tucked that far back off of Washington.

The next phase of the development is the large parking lot between T3 and Target field (Hines also owns that). They mentioned it would be a much larger building and include a large parking structure that would allow for the first floor of the office building to be flush with the street level on 5th St. I asked on the timeline given all of the other office proposals in the North Loop and they didn't really give me much - just said they are doing all of analysis, getting paper work started, etc.

Cool info, spiker! It's good to hear at least potential for a quick-serve option coming to the part of the North Loop.

As far as the next phase goes, it would be nice to have a building front onto the 5th St. viaduct, allowing a connection from 5th (and, more importantly, Target Field Station) down to the Cedar Lake Trail area. It doesn't appear to have had much of an negative effect on the T3 leaseup, but it seems like it would be a downer if someone unfamiliar with the area toured the building and realized that the advertised "one block to LRT and Commuter Rail" was only as the crow flies, and more like 4-5 blocks if you're stuck on the ground. Hopefully they could be convinced to make a public, 24-7 staircase or ramp connection between the trail and street as well.

Love the scoop! Did they say the next phase will be a timber building again?

Dezeen article and photos

https://www.dezeen.com/2016/12/02/micha ... minnesota/

A number of years ago they had a tower proposal that was 25 stores and was all glass with multi-level floors... That was proposed for the lot that they still have yet to develop... It may not be that big but with all of the development there - but they will most certainly look to maximize the opportunity.

I think there was a rumor that T3 was an indicator project to test how tight the market really is in North Loop. With the property being 60-70% leased by the end of the year, that's a pretty good indication that the market is strong. We could still see 25 stories. But I'd be happy with 10-15.

Zipnosis is moving into 16,000 square feet here next year.

http://tcbmag.com/News/Recent-News/2016 ... e-Building