urbanMSP

Also, that duplex is pretty swell too. Must be a vacant lot somewhere where it could live?

*edit, wrong church

614 is on the National Register (the First Church of Christ - Scientist). That would be a real loss.

I did not know that. Well in that case it would be very stupid of them to try to demo. Knocking down the duplex at 622 e 15th (or moving it, I guess) makes sense. The only case for demoing 614 e 15th is if it is truly too far gone to repurpose.

614 E 15th St

Not an expert so I don't know how bad this is.

The shingles themselves don't look that old (architectural style) so the roof shouldn't be leaking. As long as the foundation and walls are sound, the rafters could always be rebuilt. Almost all buildings are technically salvageable. The hard part is whether or not it's financially viable to fix them up.

That said, that's a pretty big sag in the middle third of the roof.

I'm always astonished when I pull up the property maps for this area at just how much land North Central is sitting on.

Time for them to shit or get off the pot.

there were workers pulling funiture and fixtures out of the church yesterday when I walked by.

I hope that it is due to up coming rehab/stablization work and not demolition work.

I wonder what you could do with the Church building if you were to reuse it. I doubt there's a church that could afford the cost, and I really doubt you could do a residential conversion. Office space seems unlikely too, given the neighborhood.

Maybe an event space? My living room has a view of the Van Dusen mansion, and they have weddings/receptions there more days than not. A recent-ish thread I found on Google says rates were $2500-5000 a day. Could that business plan work, given what are probably pretty high renovation costs?

MAP moves in March or April to the Westgate area off 280 and University. So this apartment project should be starting late spring at the earliest, unless they start doing prep work on the vacant ground that does not affect MAP before they move out. Figure this project will be built in phases so buildings will be staggered when they are ready for occupancy.

http://minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/pub ... 171841.pdf

Submitted to the CoW. It looks like a mutant with a ton of thrown up materials

Underground parking, height in scale to the neighbors. But the renderings are real cheap and the building could really use a cornice or some other visual interest at the top.

The developer also recently purchased the adjacent lot to the west at 614 15th St E. This property is the former First Church of Christ Scientist building which is a locally and nationally designated landmark. No changes are currently proposed to the landmark and the property is not a part of the overall development project. Any major changes to the landmark would require review and approval from the Heritage Preservation Commission.

Cool. I doubt they'll want their building adjacent to an abandoned, crumbling landmark for the next twenty years (or until it collapses), so I'd assume they have some plans for stabilization or reuse.

I'm honestly just glad they're not angling to demolish the First Church of Christ Scientist.

So let me get this straight: two separate Elliot Park projects (this one and K/A) are willing/able to a) develop the entire block at once, and b) put all parking underground. And yet, Opus insists on a) developing only half the Ritz block (albeit with a higher density), and b) gracing Nicollet Mall with a parking podium. Sweet.

OK, now that my snarky response is out of the way: I really like this. It's a hodgepodge on the outside and it's biiiiiiig, but hides away all the parking, has a nice interior courtyard that will be delightful for the residents, and has a decent—though not spectacular—number of walk-up units around the outside. I'm not sure where the "2,000 square feet of commercial space" is supposed to be, unless they're counting shared resident spaces (lobby, amenities, leasing, etc) as commercial. But overall, I like it.

I like it too. Another nice addition to the neighborhood. Nothing spectacular of course, but I welcome it.

So let me get this straight: two separate Elliot Park projects (this one and K/A) are willing/able to a) develop the entire block at once, and b) put all parking underground. And yet, Opus insists on a) developing only half the Ritz block (albeit with a higher density), and b) gracing Nicollet Mall with a parking podium. Sweet.

Word. Worst upcoming project by far. But yeah this development is great, I love the walk-ups in Elliot Park.

So let me get this straight: two separate Elliot Park projects (this one and K/A) are willing/able to a) develop the entire block at once, and b) put all parking underground. And yet, Opus insists on a) developing only half the Ritz block (albeit with a higher density), and b) gracing Nicollet Mall with a parking podium. Sweet.

Thissssssssssss

I wish something could be done with the FCCS building, it's a neglected beauty. But at least its not getting the ax.

Planning commission on Monday.

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 177568.pdf

I like it. It's Soviet enough in both style and scale that when it inevitably becomes a hard-to-maintain liability 30-40 years down the road, it will be pretty obvious to have the city just nationalize it into public housing.