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Rayette Building - (261 Fifth Street East)

Posted: December 11th, 2012, 12:11 pm
by spectre000
An agenda item has appeared on the next Heritage Preservation Committee meeting for Dec 20th. Looks like plans to convert the current parking ramp into housing and commercial space is moving forward. This building is owned by Sherman Associates.

Plans are for commercial space on the first floor, 88 rental units and common space on floors 1-7, and 62 parking spaces in the basement and back of the first floor.

Image

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 11th, 2012, 1:34 pm
by Nathan
Will be another awesome score for Lowertown!!!

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 11th, 2012, 4:15 pm
by mamundsen
Interesting... I'm pretty sure this is used as the tentant parking for both of my sisters apartment buildings in Lowertown. They live on opposite corners of 5th and Wacouta. If it is gone, where does everyone park?

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 11th, 2012, 4:43 pm
by spectre000
Most likely the tenants will have to find a public ramp or surface lot. There are a few options around. I used to park here myself. Not very convenient cause my apartment building was a couple blocks away, but the price was right. The rates for most ramps in Lowertown are pretty reasonable compared to the CBD area.

I'll bet this project is at least another year away from starting, maybe even longer. So your sisters probably won't have to find new parking options for quite a while.

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 11th, 2012, 4:44 pm
by Nick
Was this already talked about a while back? Or is it another Downtown St. Paul parking ramp conversion? This seems familiar.

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 11th, 2012, 5:28 pm
by seanrichardryan

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 12th, 2012, 4:20 am
by gcm
Any idea if those will be market-rate apartments, or will there be income restrictions?

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 12th, 2012, 8:57 am
by stp1980
It would be nice to also have a restaurant or coffee shop on this end of the park. Maybe they will have enough residents. This end usually seems pretty dead.

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 12th, 2012, 10:21 am
by spectre000
I wouldn't call this end "dead". This is right next to the Farmers Market. Heartland anchors a corner a block east. There are already a couple cafe's(Black Dog and Golden Deli's) on the other corners. There will be plenty of room for more with the retail space in the Lofts at FM, O&M building, and now this one. Shouldn't be hard to fill with the ballpark just a couple years away from opening.

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 12th, 2012, 10:41 am
by Nathan
Interesting... I'm pretty sure this is used as the tentant parking for both of my sisters apartment buildings in Lowertown. They live on opposite corners of 5th and Wacouta. If it is gone, where does everyone park?
Sell their cars? ;)

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 12th, 2012, 11:16 am
by mamundsen
ha! They will have great transit options soon, too bad one sister is a teacher in So. Washington County Dist and the other is always traveling around the cities for work. They both need their cars.

I was more thinking about the parking requirements. It seems to me that most apartment complexes are required to have a minimum of 1 spot per unit. Is this not the case in Lowertown?

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 12th, 2012, 12:15 pm
by spectre000
I don't think they have parking space requirements (in downtown at least). There have been many buildings converted to residential that don't provide any parking. The fact that this one will have any is a plus.

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 13th, 2012, 4:26 pm
by mamundsen
Pioneer Press has a story about this. No new info, I just get a kick out of the picture... haha

http://www.twincities.com/stpaul/ci_221 ... uld-add-88

Re: Rayette Building

Posted: December 14th, 2012, 8:52 am
by stp1980
I wouldn't call this end "dead". This is right next to the Farmers Market. Heartland anchors a corner a block east. There are already a couple cafe's(Black Dog and Golden Deli's) on the other corners. There will be plenty of room for more with the retail space in the Lofts at FM, O&M building, and now this one. Shouldn't be hard to fill with the ballpark just a couple years away from opening.


True, once you get to the other side by the Farmer's Market and down to where Golden's and Black Dog are, but this side of Mears always feels to me like there should be something on this end of the square, otherwise you seem to be looking at the entrances to the lofts/apartments that are here.

Re: Rayette Building - (261 Fifth Street East)

Posted: February 23rd, 2013, 11:39 pm
by Rico
Based on this article it sounds like they will be starting work on Rayette Lofts soon... Does anybody else have more info?

http://www.twincities.com/ci_22649720/s ... ne-causing

Re: Rayette Building - (261 Fifth Street East)

Posted: July 30th, 2013, 7:06 pm
by bptenor
This afternoon I saw a dumpster outside and barricades set up around the Rayette building. Looks like construction has started!

Re: Rayette Building - (261 Fifth Street East)

Posted: July 30th, 2013, 7:52 pm
by lordmoke
Awesome! I'm really happy with the number of great historic renovations/ restorations that we're getting out of this apartment boom.

Re: Rayette Building - (261 Fifth Street East)

Posted: August 1st, 2013, 1:55 pm
by at40man
I used to park in Rayette, and lived across the street in Parkside (next to Farmers Market Lofts).

While I laud the reuse of the building, architecturally there just isn't much there. Any interesting interior details the building might have had probably were removed when it was converted to a parking garage.

Re: Rayette Building - (261 Fifth Street East)

Posted: August 1st, 2013, 2:08 pm
by MNdible
So, it won't be as nice as this?

Re: Rayette Building - (261 Fifth Street East)

Posted: August 1st, 2013, 2:37 pm
by bptenor
So, it won't be as nice as this?
Haha! But I do agree it's not as interesting architecturally. At the same time, it's still different than most of the new construction going up now. An it's also different from the other warehouses around it. It's still got an old, strength of character of sorts. I think just because the Rayette has "been" something for so many years already that that itself is a draw.