urbanMSP

I don't think that Hennepin County has released their documents on this yet, but it looks like it will be close to what was proposed in the West Lake Multimodal study [PDF]. See page 77.

Thank you. Looks great.

I think I saw a construction trailer on site when I drove by today. I like this one, so I would be happy to see this one get started.

Unsurprisingly, this project doesn't appear to be going forward as a hotel. Happily, it appears to be rebooted as a residential building. An application was submitted to the city this week for a nine story mixed-use building with 74 units. That's actually non-compliant with the built form map, which designates this parcel as Transit 30, which has a ten story minimum. I hope the developer gets a little nudge to add a story and a couple more units, since they must already be using steel and concrete.

Pumps have been pulled and barriers have been placed around the former BP. Demo/site clean up looked like it was going to start this morning with equipment on site. I think the plan is still for a 9 story apartment complex

That’s what I remember last reading, full apartments now.

Great news, finally. Surprised I missed that on the drive out this morning, will be fun to watch go up. I hope the height eventually has some traffic calming effects.

So excited to see this moving forward and the BP out of there.

Also, was looking back a few pages and saw the rendering from 2019 that showed a much more lovely traffic island than we ended up getting directly in front of this parcel. Too bad some wild grasses or something weren't planted in that island as now it's just flat grass and a hangout for folks asking for change.

F&C article from June about the apartments plan: https://finance-commerce.com/2021/06/ci ... ng-plan-b/ (unlocked)

74 rental units and approximately 3,000 square feet of commercial space.

Have we ever seen the full final plan for this?

Hell yes. Hopefully this is a step toward the eventual urbanization of all the crap that surrounds it. There is a ton of potential in the (relatively) open real estate here.

I heard (read on urbanmsp maybe?) that the owner of the strip mall with Walgreens/Rustica plans to eventually reposition the property to include mixed use.

I heard (read on urbanmsp maybe?) that the owner of the strip mall with Walgreens/Rustica plans to eventually reposition the property to include mixed use.

It was purchased in 2016 by Doran Cos... I don't think there was ever a specific plan for redevelopment, but a lot of excitement for them to potentially redevelop the site as it is getting very ripe for that.

Yep. But at the same time, it's a good location for retail and they seem to be doing pretty well keeping it leased up, so I also don't think there's any urgency to move forward. If it's cash-flowing, they can sit and wait until the market is primed.

Personally hoping that they wait until CPED or whoever gets a chance to run a sanity check on the built form map. That's one of the areas where their algorithm pretty clearly got away from them, since everything between Lake/Excelsior and the Greenway is Transit 30 (with its 10 story minimum) except the strip mall parcel in the middle, which is Corridor 6.

Yep. But at the same time, it's a good location for retail and they seem to be doing pretty well keeping it leased up, so I also don't think there's any urgency to move forward. If it's cash-flowing, they can sit and wait until the market is primed.

Yeah all the shitty retail around here is extremely busy so its going to take a while, one project at a time.

I was also thinking about the office buildings surface parking but I really know nothing about it.

I think a mid sized hedge fund is based in the office building but I would rather see that go first then the strip malls. Also the office building is right on the lake and to me that’s far worse use of prime land

Sure, I agree its out of place but it seems like there is a lot of life left in that building. I'm talking about developing its giant surface lot.

Fair point. I still hold out hope we will one day get a hotel on this side of the lake as I think it would be popular. The parking lot would be perfect for it!