Suburbs - General Topics

[Tom H.]

I work there right now for a small company in the main tower. There isn't much WF presence in that building - Epicor is the bigger tenant in the tower. There are several small law firms as well - probably 20 tenants at least, I would estimate.

[Wedgeguy]

Thanks for the info. I was looking at the tower and the other buildings as mainly WF due to all of the signage on all of the buildings. So they are not really leaving that large of a gap in the complex. Also they will probably be leaving in phases as well.

[mattaudio]

WF has the much of the 400 building and nearly all of the 300 building.

Edit: And Wedgeguy they signed long term leases. Most of that space is sticking around. I think people fail to fully comprehend large bank's ability to literaly vacuum up all the office space they can find.

[Wedgeguy]

I thought that they had gotten some sweet heart lease rates a few years ago. But they also have the resources to find tenants to sublease their space for the remainder of their leases.

[mattaudio]

And why would they want to sublease their space?

[Wedgeguy]

And why would they want to sublease their space?

If you have downtown space sitting empty that is also paid for. Why would you stay in the burbs until the leases run out. They can find someone else to take over their suburban leases as apposed to subleasing their new downtown space until leases are up. The move into the DTE space will be phased in as well. I'm sure that WF knows how/when they will move people around. It is not all going to happen in one quarter that is for sure. The west tower will be first to fill while the east tower will still be several months away from getting built out in the inside.

[Anondson]

Suburban city councils are weighing the costs of new city halls.

http://www.startribune.com/suburbs-weig ... 353110141/

[mamundsen]

Suburban city councils are weighing the costs of new city halls.

http://www.startribune.com/suburbs-weig ... 353110141/

Who knew that in an article mostly about crumbling city halls, would we also see mentions of need for more parking!

[mattaudio]

Maybe it's time for some of these smaller inner-metro cities to merge?

[Mikey]

AMEN!

[QuietBlue]

Yeah, the amount of small suburbs we have (let alone the really tiny ones like Hilltop, Landfall, Mendota, etc) is kind of ridiculous. I'm not sure who benefits from that.

[MinnMonkey]

Yeah, the amount of small suburbs we have (let alone the really tiny ones like Hilltop, Landfall, Mendota, etc) is kind of ridiculous. I'm not sure who benefits from that.

Is it a coincidence that both Hilltop and Landfall are primarily trailer parks? Mendota I understand due to its historical nature.

[twincitizen]

I believe Hilltop and Landfall are specifically incorporated to cement their permanent status as trailer parks. You know damn well that Columbia Heights and Oakdale, respectively, would wipe them out for redevelopment in a heartbeat. At some point in history, I'd guess those trailer park property owners went to the legislature and had their little enclaves incorporated as cities to protect their existence.

Wash Co Historical Society (Landfall): http://www.wchsmn.org/landfall/

City Pages (Hilltop): http://www.citypages.com/news/pushing-tin-6744611

[QuietBlue]

That's something I hadn't really considered, but it makes sense. It seems like it will be even more necessary as redevelopment of existing low-income housing becomes more of an issue.

[mplsjaromir]

That's something I hadn't really considered, but it makes sense. It seems like it will be even more necessary as redevelopment of existing low-income housing becomes more of an issue.

Agreed. Manufactured home parks tend to have the most reasonable street widths of any type of development in the US. Too bad no one here allows site built homes with streets of Asian and European width.

[RailBaronYarr]

^ This is true. The one closest to my home growing up still had to put speed bumps throughout because enough people used it as a cut-through to save time. 20-25' road widths are cheap but still wide enough that people will speed right through them, even with trees and very small setbacks from the closest point of the mobile home. On the flip side, my grandpa lives in a retirement village of manufactured homes with generous setbacks and ~20' street widths with no traffic calming measures, and people in real cars drive the speed of the golf carts you (rarely) see.

[Mdcastle]

My first thought was "why would people cut through a trailer park?". Then I looked at the map...

[mattaudio]

I remember when the "new" Apple Valley Menards was built...
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... store.html

(The old AV Menards became Watson's which was then torn down for the relocation of Apple Valley Transit Station across the street)

[Mdcastle]

Why are they building a two story store? I thought they only did those where land was scarce, and it looks like if they didn't have the outlots they'd have plenty of room here. Or have they just decided that's their prototype no matter what?

[Wedgeguy]

Why are they building a two story store? I thought they only did those where land was scarce, and it looks like if they didn't have the outlots they'd have plenty of room here. Or have they just decided that's their prototype no matter what?

I'd say that they have a concept that works and is much better than walking from one end of Home Depot to the other. They can use less land and get the same amount of space with a much better interior than Home Depot. When they built the Midway store I thought that would be their only 2 story store. But customers seem to like them so they are using what works and making money while doing it. I think they are at 4-5 of the 2 story stores now.