urbanMSP

LHENA meeting Wednesday night to introduce plans for the cursed restaurant property just north of Uptown Transit Station. 6/7-story stick box, ~145-150 units. No curb cut on Hennepin, all access via the alley

This thing better have good retail presence on Hennepin and good greenway frontage, because it sure isn’t an exciting project. I say unexciting because it seems like they could’ve built this exact project in 2013. 7+ years later and so many other sites developed had me hoping for more on this site.

I guess they won’t be sharing drawings until a later meeting in June.

Yeah, that sounds... okay. I wasn't expecting anything too wild in These Troubled Times, but a 10-11 story residential building seemed possible. If it pencils way back against the railroad tracks in Dinkytown, seems like it could pencil on Hennepin right next to the Greenway.

I mean I would take anything at this point both because 1) the current setup is terrible and has so many failures, and 2) who knows what the market will be like in the next few years.

only thing I could see with the going taller is that the greenway has some setback requirements as you go higher now but I don't know if it would apply to this site

"the greenway has some setback requirements as you go higher now but I don't know if it would apply to this site" Setbacks for greenway are typically for the south side of trail for shadowing considerations that can be an issue with freeze thaw of wintertime and lower angle of the sun.

Isn't the fact that this is a "cursed restaurant property" an indication that there's maybe already too much retail in the area and an indication maybe we shouldn't insist on them building a lot of retail?

I don't think there's too much retail in Uptown. The property owners are charging too much for their retail rents because they still think they're an upscale shopping neighborhood and want to wait for another Columbia or Urban Outfitters.

I imagine we're going to see a correction there soon as they've all suddenly been reminded that markets also go down.

Plans coming before the Planning Commission Committee of the Whole

Looks like we'll also be getting rid of at least one side of a billboard. If nothing else, that's an improvement right there.

Really a big aesthetic win for the area, honestly. The building looks nice, it'll vaporize a billboard, and it'll cover up Mozaic's monstrous parking podium a bit.

Unit count and parking ratio are also good. Nice that it will create a new ped/bike connection from Aldrich to Hennepin.

This is definitely one of the better looking 5 over 1 buildings we've seen proposed/built recently

the entrance to the promenade from Hennepin needs work, ideally with some sort of interface with the north end of the Uptown Transit Center's concrete area and a clearer gateway. The promenade also needs some light fixtures as the advance the design. 8' is not that wide, so where any light fixtures or fencing gets placed is critical to be located outside of the sidewalk so that it remains 8' clear.

Big dumpster in the parking lot and the big sign was ripped open. Might be removing everything for preparation of building demo?

The lot has been sold and per the city they are in the “in the process of submitting footings and foundation permits “
I would expect this to break ground soonish once spring is in full swing
https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... tment.html

Saw on Reddit they’ve started demo.