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Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 8:46 am
by EOst
It's six lots, the two vacant Rex lots plus the next four houses. The first two are rentals and in poor shape, as is the last, but the third is in better condition and may be moved.
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 9:10 am
by twincitizen
Thanks guys!
The earlier info was that it was just two houses. Hopefully they do find a place for at least 1 of the houses to be moved, because demo of all 4 might just be enough to gin up some neighborhood opposition, even if they aren't significant or special in any way.
I cam almost guarantee the neighborhood will ask for more 2BRs and 3BRs, larger units, etc., with popular opinion of the Whittier Alliance being that there are enough studios and 1BRs already. Was there any chatter to that effect last night?
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 9:25 am
by Anondson
A fifth level set far back with all 2–3 beds would be nice...
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 9:29 am
by Nathan
Would another layer of 2 to 3 beds then lead to needing enough more parking that they have to restructure though? 1 br and studio residents may be more likely to be carless than a small family etc etc.
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 9:38 am
by mattaudio
I'd think a family in a 2/3br would be more likely to have one car than a solo person in a 1br would be likely to have no car. Or maybe there are couples living in 500SF 1brs that share a car. Of course, as a full parking reformer, I could care less how many cars people have. Maybe give the neighborhood a bargain: Do they want a 5th floor with 2-3 brs but no adtl parking? Or leave as-is by-right?
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 9:41 am
by EOst
Plenty of desire for 3+ bdrm units. One lady said that "no one is having trouble finding a 1 bedroom in Whittier" (amazing then that rents keep rising...) and was worried that, as soon as the housing market "inevitably crashes," having too many 1 bedrooms will turn Whittier into the Wire or something to that effect.
The developer mentioned that the expected parking ratio for this building is .6, so there are already more parking spots allocated for residents than they anticipate needing. When he discussed the possibility of a 5th floor, it didn't sound as though it would require much restructuring (though that was probably with the same floor plan as below), but wouldn't the lower number of units somewhat offset that anyway?
Truth be told, there aren't that many vacant residential lots in Whittier (or west of 35 in general) to move these houses to, and I wonder if they'd still be marketable at the prices they'd need in Phillips.
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 10:02 am
by twincitizen
That's the first thing that always comes to mind when people express desire for houses to be moved/saved: to where?
There really aren't any vacant lots nearby just sitting open to accept a house, particularly these larger ones.
If you really wanted to save these houses in/near Whittier, the only open land they could go to is probably someone's parking lot today (looking at you MCAD, Wedge Co-op, etc.)
Last thing, if they're going to acquire 4 houses, they should honestly just acquire the 5th and final one to the south, as it includes a bonus vacant lot next door:
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.954552, ... 312!8i6656
Of course, it could always be developed separately or the owner could decide to sell the vacant half of it (also could be an obvious destination for any of the houses displaced by this development)
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 10:29 am
by FISHMANPET
At the December Corcoran Land Use meeting, moving the Burma Shave building on the SW corner of Lake and 21st was discussed, and one of the guys there to advocate talked about how he'd moved a house from Phillips to Richfield, as justification for how "easy" it would be to move a 100 year old dilapidated huge commercial structure.
Basically the #houselivesmatter crew has no grounding in reality.
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 10:57 am
by TroyGBiv
The restoration people are great and I support what they fight for... I do think that there are somethings that are nice to preserve not necessary to preserve. In 70 years I hope that we are not fighting to preserve a Subway Sandwich sign... (*giggle*)
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 11:08 am
by twincitizen
Not gonna happen. As we all know, in the future all restaurants are Taco Bell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFiDoOgRTpk
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 11:41 am
by Archiapolis
Guys, it was there on the handout under a (very thin) layer of whiteout.
That is hilarious! You can see ALDI very clearly! My thoughts on this (I live five blocks away) are that this is a very rough rendering... why go too far knowing that the community types are going to always hate the first version of anything they see... they need to feel like they have had "input" no matter what the design looks like.... This rendering is a place holder and didn't cost too much to have done for this meeting. The scale seems great to me - this is a very dense neighborhood and we rely heavily on transit. The household income in that area is lower and an ALDI would be a huge benefit for many of our Whittier families. There is a high number of students at the Whittier Arts Elementary who rely on getting meals at school so this type of quality/value grocery would be great! I would rather see an Aldi than a Walmart. I am actually surprised by this project - I didn't think they would be this ambitious! The next round of renderings will help to better envision how this will fit in at that intersection.
This is well said in addition to what Nathan said above. Show as little as possible, let everyone freak out/hate it. Then come back after "input" and show more detail.
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 11:50 am
by Archiapolis
Plenty of desire for 3+ bdrm units. One lady said that "no one is having trouble finding a 1 bedroom in Whittier" (amazing then that rents keep rising...) and was worried that, as soon as the housing market "inevitably crashes," having too many 1 bedrooms will turn Whittier into the Wire or something to that effect.
Ha!
The developer mentioned that the expected parking ratio for this building is .6, so there are already more parking spots allocated for residents than they anticipate needing. When he discussed the possibility of a 5th floor, it didn't sound as though it would require much restructuring (though that was probably with the same floor plan as below), but wouldn't the lower number of units somewhat offset that anyway?
The recent changes to the zoning code/parking minimum reductions along high frequency lines can probably go a long way here in terms of reducing parking in an ambitious way. It isn't hard to "straddle" two or three units below and create 2 and 3 BEDS on the top floor in terms of loads (lots of precedent for that). I don't know what this developer's pro forma looks like but now that I see the full scope of this project, I'm SHOCKED that they didn't go to the full height that the building code allows (the "5 over 1" that everyone loves). It looks like they were being sensitive to the 56' height limit and only asking for another 3' but why stop there? Also, this project looks sizable but maybe doesn't quite get there...but, if they got to a PUD size, it seems like they could absolutely shoot for that "5 over 1" size (as with a PUD, you have more latitude with height).
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 12th, 2016, 2:17 pm
by clf
Did the law suit against Gerberding by the city resolve? I heard that is why his investors pulled out of his last project.
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 16th, 2016, 7:21 pm
by bapster2006
My view every weekend morning from Common Roots.
Pre construction 26th and Lyndale Minneapolis 1-16-16 by
Matt Bappe, on Flickr
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 19th, 2016, 10:24 pm
by Condo_Dweller
Is Aldi confirmed? It was an open secret previously.
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: January 26th, 2016, 3:30 pm
by MattW
When Aldi is confirmed, this is what we'll likely get:
http://www.citypages.com/restaurants/al ... at-7991775
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: February 7th, 2016, 11:55 pm
by johneapolis
Gerberding is back at the Whittier Alliance tomorrow with the updated 5 story version. 2905 Harriet is also on the agenda.
http://whittieralliance.org/wp/wp-conte ... -08-16.pdf
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: February 9th, 2016, 11:19 am
by twincitizen
Gerberding stated last night that Aldi was not a sure thing and that he was in talks with 3 different retailers (presumably all grocers) to fill the space. When asked if the commercial space was possibly being divided for multiple tenants, he responded that they are still looking at a single tenant to fill the entire space.
Given the proximity of The Wedge, Aldi really does seem like the best fit / least overlapping customer base. It's also likely to generate the least car traffic (compared to a Trader Joe's that would draw drivers from across the city). A Fresh Thyme or something like that would seem too close to The Wedge.
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: February 10th, 2016, 10:43 am
by seanrichardryan
Re: Rex 26 - 2601 Lyndale Ave S
Posted: February 18th, 2016, 5:17 pm
by grant1simons2