urbanMSP

Zing!

Spruce Tree Center is maybe my favorite building on University between the two downtowns, and Excluding the U... It's totally equipped to have a ton of on street retail, addresses the corner well, is unique and interesting, which is great place making. I've always loved it's simple geometry and use of color rather than lots of gimmicks.

Ooph. Well, I can't think of a station more in need of this kind of development. This is going to be a huge improvement.

Ok so there was the ceremonial ground breaking but any idea when this construction project gets underway for real?

"Construction is expected to begin within about a month and take 14 months to fully complete."

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_ ... eak-ground

Holy cow 14 months!? Is that normal or am I just crazy

that seems normal for a project of this size.

Yesterday I saw some heavy equipment moved onto the site. Perhaps demolition and excavation is close at hand.

Demolition of the old structures that occupied the lot has begun.

The streetscape here is going to be dramatically changed by this project and the one down at Griggs. Does anyone know if Target owns the property across the street from this one? It seems like that is an asset they would be willing to sell off at some point as it is just two empty parking lots far away from their store and hardly (if ever) used by customers.

It is theirs and they are going to do something with it eventually. When the parking lot was redone several years back I recall a Target rep mentioning somewhere (Villager, maybe?) that the parcel along University would eventually be developed once the Green Line was running.

It appears they have started excavation and pile driving work

I'm excited to see this project get under way. It'll be nice to have one of these lots filled in and have more people living directly on University on this end of town.

This is/was possibly the most decrepit empty lot on University, IMO. It will be great to have it filled.

This is about at ground level now.

Some concrete posts are starting to stick up from the foundation.

Still mostly just a foundation plus one story of concrete near the Hamline/University corner:

_mg_9119 by Mulad, on Flickr


_mg_9120 by Mulad, on Flickr


_mg_9122 by Mulad, on Flickr


_mg_9129 by Mulad, on Flickr

What a grim looking worksite. The white building wrap has been flapping in the wind since they erected the pre-fab walls which had the stuff already stapled onto it. In some parts they have tried to tack it down, other parts it is frayed like Tibetan prayer flags. It seems like this project is going very slowly. I know that its going to be targeted at lower income rentals, but wow. Contrast that with the Vintage, just a mile away which is quickly going up. It just seems to be a higher quality contractor and product.

What a grim looking worksite. The white building wrap has been flapping in the wind since they erected the pre-fab walls which had the stuff already stapled onto it. In some parts they have tried to tack it down, other parts it is frayed like Tibetan prayer flags. It seems like this project is going very slowly. I know that its going to be targeted at lower income rentals, but wow. Contrast that with the Vintage, just a mile away which is quickly going up. It just seems to be a higher quality contractor and product.

Funny you say that, because the only-build-affordable-housing-in-the-suburbs(-and-make-it-lower-quality) crowd is using Hamline Station as an example of the supposed decadence and corruption of the affordable housing construction industry: http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_ ... y-endeavor

I don't think housing lower-income people in trailer parks in the suburbs is a great idea, but the larger point that the affordable housing system is broken on some level seems to make sense. Hamline Station is symptomatic of many of the problems - convoluted financing, drawn-out construction process, too many cooks in the kitchen, etc. There has got to be better ways to get more affordable units built, relatively cost-effectively.