Excelsior and Grand Area - St. Louis Park

Twin Cities Suburbs
bapster2006
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Re: St. Louis Park - General Topics

Postby bapster2006 » April 24th, 2015, 5:32 pm

Right now it is conceptual, but Bridgewater will have 10,000 sq ft on the corner and there will be an additional 7,000 sq ft for other commercial use along Excelsior. The plan is to have a paver roadway come off Monterey and under a covered area (apartments above) into the back of the building. Another covered driveway will be on Excelsior on the east end of the building.

Anondson
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby Anondson » April 30th, 2015, 6:46 pm

Finance and Commerce picked up the proposal at Monterey and Excelsior. [pay locked]

http://finance-commerce.com/2015/04/exc ... um=twitter

bapster2006
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby bapster2006 » May 1st, 2015, 7:19 am

Homeowners objected to the size of the Bally's development. There are no homeowners near the Bally's development.

http://m.bizjournals.com/twincities/mor ... -trim.html

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Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby Anondson » May 1st, 2015, 7:20 am

Ninja'd.

Does the planning commission have minutes of this meeting?

min-chi-cbus
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby min-chi-cbus » May 1st, 2015, 7:43 am

Homeowners objected to the size of the Bally's development. There are no homeowners near the Bally's development.

http://m.bizjournals.com/twincities/mor ... -trim.html
Ironic, isn't it? Unless they mean the renters at Excelsior & Grand...

I don't have a huge issue with lowering it to 5 floors, which I believe is the preexisting max height within E&G. I'd rather see both new projects at 5 floors than nothing.

bapster2006
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby bapster2006 » May 1st, 2015, 9:16 am

I agree that Bally's and Bridgewater will both fit in well at 5 floors. Now I'm curious about the financials with the loss of units. We will see in a few weeks how they make Bally's work.

bapster2006
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby bapster2006 » May 1st, 2015, 9:43 am

Starting at page 20 of this doc has just about all you would want to know about the Bally's development but I don't think the notes from the recent meeting are available yet.

http://www.stlouispark.org/webfiles/fil ... 041515.pdf

lordmoke
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby lordmoke » May 1st, 2015, 9:46 am

Some of the buildings behind the proposed development are actually condos, so there are owners in the area. Though it's not like this proposal would be towering over any adjacent structures, the way the word "homeowners" would lead the reader to believe.

twincitizen
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby twincitizen » May 4th, 2015, 7:51 am


MNdible
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby MNdible » May 4th, 2015, 8:22 am

280,000 sf would be the biggest grocery store ever. Kind of wish somebody at the Strib would catch these mistakes.

RailBaronYarr
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby RailBaronYarr » May 4th, 2015, 9:44 am

Is it just me or does this stretch need better transit than the 12 bus and 3/2 AM/PM 114 buses? Nick's idea of extending the Midtown streetcar down Excelsior from West Lake has some real merit.

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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby Anondson » May 4th, 2015, 10:02 am

Agreed.

twincitizen
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby twincitizen » May 4th, 2015, 2:48 pm

Agreed on the complete lack of transit here. Your choices are to ride the 12 for something like 40 minutes to get downtown, or to walk an unreasonable distance (nearly 1 mi.)to the west side of Hwy. 100 to catch an express bus (664). There are no Park & Rides nearby for those who'd choose that option. Right now, I can't imagine there are too many people living at Excelsior & Grand and working downtown. It's an absolutely terrible combination given the current lack of transit options.

Short term fix: I'd suggest modifying the 664 to continue eastbound on Excelsior (instead of jumping on NB 100) to make a loop around Monterey and 36th St before getting on NB 100 there. You add about 5 minutes to the ride for everyone west of 100, but pick up a ton of potential riders at Excelsior & Grand and thereby potentially add another trip or two to the route, increasing frequency for those existing riders.

It's not the ideal solution, as you delay a bunch of folks getting on the bus as far west as Hopkins, though it's possible the delay could be add as little as 4-5 minutes to the trip. In a future with SWLRT, the better option is probably just way more frequent service on Excelsior - connecting/terminating at West Lake Station.

EDIT: Metro Transit's schedule indicates a trip time of 27 minutes from Excelsior & Quentin to Hennepin & 7th. Add a 5 minute walk to IDS and you have a total rush hour trip of 32 minutes. The westbound trip in the evening is scheduled at 2 minutes longer than that, so 34 minutes including the walk to Hennepin. The limited-stop Route 12 offers service approximately every 15 minutes during peak hours. Contrast that with the Route 664 Express, which offers just 4 trips AM peak and 5 trips PM peak, but will get you from Excelsior & 100 to IDS in 31 minutes. Add in your 10+ minute walk from Excelsior & Grand to the west side of 100 and you're over 40 minutes. That is not competitive with Route 12, though it would be a much smoother ride. However, I suspect that there is additional time baked into the schedule right now due to Hwy. 100 construction. They could be padding those times by greater than 5 minutes, so once things return to normal, the 664 Express actually would be the faster choice.

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Nick
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby Nick » May 4th, 2015, 3:42 pm

A less-insufferable-than-most-of-mine-lately streets.mn post is brewing in my mind about TOD around this area unless someone better wants it. This is the kind of area where T to get D maybe makes sense as otherwise you wouldn't get as much development (tho obviously some like the project we're discussing now) but the D you're getting for your T is also extra worth it as the area is walkable and amenity-rich enough that I could see the kind of people who'd pay market-rate rents here maybe going carless.
Nick Magrino
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby twincitizen » May 4th, 2015, 6:59 pm

I could be persuaded to write that post.

Soooo, while Oppidan was just told by the Planning Commission (and neighbors) to shrink their proposal (on the Bally site) back to 5 stories and drop some units, Bridgewater is pushing forward with their 6-story proposal on the east end at Excelsior & Monterey. In the F&C story today, it stated that site was zoned for six stories... Is the Bally site to the west zoned differently somehow?

Here are the plans for the Dominum/BKV/Bridgewater proposal: http://www.stlouispark.org/webfiles/fil ... boards.pdf
The corner looks really good. Bridgewater Bank is taking up nearly all of the retail space in that one. I think 4,000 sf or something might be available on the east end for another tenant. In the Oppidan project on the Bally site, I'd guess that Fresh Thyme Grocery is taking 100% of that retail space. No need to create more when there are still vacancies in the main E&G project. The additional 500 or so residents should be a boon to the area overall, all without displacing a single existing housing unit.

Sara Bergen

Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby Sara Bergen » May 7th, 2015, 6:50 am

I attended the planning commission hearing last night and shared my thoughts about the Park Commons/Monterey interchange. The commission voted 6-1 to recommend the zoning change from commercial to mixed use after much clarification that they were not voting on this development per set, but on the zoning for the three sites involved. I think on May 11 the City council will vote on the recommendation.

Sara Bergen

Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby Sara Bergen » May 7th, 2015, 7:03 am

Article about the three proposed SLP developments. Interesting that he describes the Bridgewater site as "a vacant lot at the corner of Excelsior Boulevard and Monterey Drive."


Three apartment projects proposed in St. Louis Park

Bridgewater:
Image

4900/Bally:
Image

Anondson
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby Anondson » May 7th, 2015, 7:14 am

There is a trend with crown frames along Excelsior...

twincitizen
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby twincitizen » May 7th, 2015, 7:20 am

I've always found the found the original E&G ones to be a bit over the top (pun intended, I guess):

Image

min-chi-cbus
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Re: Excelsior and Grand Area Development - St. Louis Park

Postby min-chi-cbus » May 7th, 2015, 7:29 am

Yeah, I'm not a fan at all of crowns on most buildings....US Bank's HQ (or Capella Tower, as it's called now) is an exception. Maybe it's just on shorter buildings where I don't really like it....

I think the Oppidan project (Bridgewater) looks sleek and would fit in seemlessly with the preexisting infrastructure at Excelsior & Grand. Dominion's building not quite as much, but I think both are okay and am excited to see the bookends of Excelsior & Grand continue to expand! I'm curious if/when some of those outlets with surface parking to the East/NE (like Opitz) will be next on the chopping block, or if E&G will end where it is now and be the E&G as we know it now (or once these new buildings are up).


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