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Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 10:58 am
by PhilmerPhil
The church at 12th and Nicollet is building a new parking lot! (By removing a 1900 4-story affordable apartment building...)

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 03736.html

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 11:39 am
by reeckman
The building they want to remove is the Marimark on 13th and Marquette. These are people's homes so I understand the outrage, but from the reviews it sounds like affordable housing can do much better than this.

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 11:49 am
by 612transplant
It seems to me that it would be more ethical for the church to use that $3 million, partner with a private developer (and the city???) and get something built on the fly and give these residents priority in a new building. Seems.....wasteful? to raze people's homes for a parking lot. What's that Gandhi quote? "I like Christ, but I don't like you Christians....you are so un-Christ like." I'm a church-going Christian, but it seems to apply here...

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 11:51 am
by mplser
methinks they could have waited until their new housing was underway to kick these people out.

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 11:54 am
by mnmike
I thought it looked like the building was getting more and more empty. Is this surface parking? I thought new surface lots were prohibited?

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 11:55 am
by 612transplant
methinks they could have waited until their new housing was underway to kick these people out.
Methinks you're correct.

And, do they have housing that they are developing in the works, or....? I got the impression that the $3 million commitment to affordable housing development was sort of a token...

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 12:04 pm
by min-chi-cbus
methinks they could have waited until their new housing was underway to kick these people out.
Methinks you're correct.

And, do they have housing that they are developing in the works, or....? I got the impression that the $3 million commitment to affordable housing development was sort of a token...
They said 150 units of affordable housing in (I want to say) 5 years. Seems pretty committed to me.

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 12:08 pm
by retiredbanker
I have a difficult time believing that Westminster will not try to do everything that it can to help those displaced by the move. That's a very compassionate church, very involved in the community. I believe that church is involved with other churches to help provide affordable housing for the needy within the metro area. I would like to think that $3 million is by no means a "paltry" sum. That is a very good donation to help with housing in the Twin Cities. To the best of my knowledge, mplser is a member of that church, so he could best detail things out about the church project and its community involvement better than I could. For that matter, each and everyone of us need to be involved to help the less fortunate. And that starts with me.

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 1:06 pm
by Nick
They're only knocking down four stories? What a waste of real estate. So boring. They should knock it down at least 33 stories. They should dig a 29 story hole or this is a total waste, I'm so tired of all the boring projects.

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 1:07 pm
by John
I agree with the above statement of Retiredbanker , and I doubt Westminster Church will not act responsibly in this matter.This article always brings up the issue ( for myself) of creating more affordable housing in the city for low and moderate income working people. Minneapolis seems to do a pretty good job for building housing for the very rich and the very poor, but not for the people in the working class.

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 1:12 pm
by PhilmerPhil
I don't think anyone believes they will act irresponsibly towards the tenants. It's the fact that we lose a 100+ year old building (that probably has some beautiful brickwork under that stucco) all for a parking lot. While not the prettiest building, I've always been fond of it's character.

To me the whole thing sounds like they're using their future plans to add housing as an excuse to build more parking. Why not add 150 units and/or rehab the Marimark building?

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 1:20 pm
by Nathan
I really hope this isn't more surface parking, I like that intersection actually, it could be such a great place for something really cool. Remember when Churches Contributed some of the best architecture to cities?

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 2:11 pm
by minntransplant
In all fairness, the Church says that they will be "expanding their ministry" in addition to building new parking. Hopefully that means building Church facilities, i.e., office space, classrooms, meeting rooms, etc., on top of a parking structure and/or underground parking.

At least they are doing the right thing and offering assistance for displaced residents and promising money to build affordable housing. Other property owners may not have been so considerate, for what that is worth.

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 13th, 2012, 3:45 pm
by mplser
To the best of my knowledge, mplser is a member of that church, so he could best detail things out about the church project and its community involvement better than I could.
normally yes, but it seems they have kept some people in the dark about this until now, me being one of those people. I have known for a while that they have been looking at building housing downtown (although I was under the impression that it would be senior housing). I knew they wanted to buy this apartment building, but I just sort of assumed it would be to replace it with more housing, since I was told that is the reason they purchased 1221 Nicollet Mall (the Wells Fargo office building).

Re: Westminister Church Parking Lot

Posted: July 15th, 2012, 11:04 am
by Lancestar2
I actually Googled that building a while back because I thought it might be a nice place to live but they have a lot of negative reviews online. I think it's a good thing that crappy building will be gone (would have been better if sombody was willing to fix it up and get rid of the bug problems but guess that's not happening) It would have been nice to see the church invest the 3 Million towards building a nice 2-4 floors of apartments above there parking lot but like the artical said they didn't have all the funding up front and im guessing it would be to risky for them anyways. I think the MOST we can hope for is a touch of green space around the parking lot and some nice flowers! ...also I think I might have to start worshiping Satan :twisted: if they put up a wood fence like so...


https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=4 ... .98,,0,4.9

Westminster Church

Posted: September 27th, 2012, 12:21 pm
by 1200onthemall
http://www.startribune.com/local/171536431.html

"The downtown Minneapolis institution confirmed Thursday that it has purchased 1221 Nicollet Mall, an office building adjacent to the church, from Presbyterian Homes"

Perfect location for a senior highrise!

Re: Westminster Church

Posted: September 27th, 2012, 1:10 pm
by trkaiser
A senior high-rise - is that the impression you got from the story? I find it strange that they were able to afford to purchase those, and plan to knock them down. I'll withhold judgment until I see the plan, but find this whole thing quite strange.

Re: Westminster Church

Posted: September 27th, 2012, 2:12 pm
by mplser
A senior high-rise - is that the impression you got from the story? I find it strange that they were able to afford to purchase those, and plan to knock them down. I'll withhold judgment until I see the plan, but find this whole thing quite strange.
a senior high rise is the plan for that site, or at least it was when I was working at Westminster. (I'm not anymore)

Re: Westminster Church

Posted: September 27th, 2012, 3:05 pm
by nordeast homer
When Presbyterian Homes bought it in '05 the plan was for a senior highrise, the more recent stories on this are pretty vague; however, it did say that they were talking with James Dayton about a "vision" for the sight.

Re: Westminster Church

Posted: September 27th, 2012, 3:44 pm
by John
When Presbyterian Homes bought it in '05 the plan was for a senior highrise, the more recent stories on this are pretty vague; however, it did say that they were talking with James Dayton about a "vision" for the sight.
I live across the street from this church and I'm thrilled to hear about some new plans for this block. Housing with a bit of retail on the street level would be my preference, however, I am very confident that the civic-minded Westminster Church will do something beautiful for this site... in whatever plan they implement. :D