Suburbs - General Topics

[Wedgeguy]

Hasn't Imation been kind of a turd ever since it spun off from 3M?
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/m ... ut-at.html

They have had a wilder rollercoaster ride that we do on Wild Thing!!

[MNdible]

They didn't spin it off just for fun -- even way back in the mid-90's, it was clear that data storage was going to become a commodity.

[seamonster]

Lots of activity at the Columbia Heights Library site (next to the Heights Theater on Central).

[grant1simons2]

New Thai Restaurant in Eden Prairie called 'Lotus Leaf'. Uses more ingredients from local farms

http://www.lotusleafmn.com/

I'm literally on the bus right now, that's how I saw Lotus Leaf, and now I just passed 'Pie Five'

http://www.piefivepizza.com/

[lordmoke]

Lots of activity at the Columbia Heights Library site (next to the Heights Theater on Central).

Cool, I didn't even know this was a thing! Some info, link to renders in the middle of the page:
http://www.ci.columbia-heights.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=624

[Anondson]

Wealthy enclaves of homes on 5+ acre lots discover infrastructure becomes unaffordable when people are too spread apart.

http://www.startribune.com/a-disconnect ... 336666211/

Duh.

I don't mind people living the way they want as long as they pay the costs of their decisions. But Afton, Medina, and Orono applied for state aid to bring broad band to million dollar homes. They were declined.

The home owners also refuse to pay the cost of bringing the connections out to their home themselves.

[FISHMANPET]

I feel like this is an issue everybody, even Strib commenters, can agree on. Which seems to be the case so far.

If they want to form a co-op to bring broadband to their communities, the same way farmers did with electricity, they're more than welcome to build out the infrastructure themselves. Oh wait they're not willing to do that.

[Anondson]

I admit I eagerly checked the Strib comments to this one.

[seanrichardryan]

...
If they want to form a co-op to bring broadband to their communities, the same way farmers did with electricity, they're more than welcome to build out the infrastructure themselves. Oh wait they're not willing to do that.

To be clear, those coops were backed with federal loans initiated by the Rural Electrification Act, part of Roosevelt's New Deal. That being said, broadband for rural mansions is not even comparable.

[jw138]

We should also subsidize a new Pizza Hut so they can finally get pizza delivered to their $1.3 million dollar 21 acre mansion on the prairie! For the love of god, these people deserve better!

[Tiller]

I just heard the maplewood bowling alley was recently demolished for this:
https://www.sherman-associates.com/news ... maplewood/

The team will begin construction next week on the creation of fifty units of rental housing, forty of which are affordable through the Section 42 program including ten units designated for veterans experiencing long-term homelessness. Construction of the new four-story building will take approximately 11 months.

The Villages at Frost-English is an important project for the City of Maplewood. The site is currently vacant but for an abandoned bowling alley. In addition to constructing a new building, soil contaminates and asbestos will be removed from the site. Phase I is the first of three planned phases of development. Phase II is an approximately 80-unit senior rental building and Phase III is a 6,500 square foot commercial building.

A comparison came to mind. Here are the plans for two nearby bowling alleys that closed within the last 10 years. One is in St Paul, and one is in Maplewood. Something tells me that E St Paul may benefit from annexation by Maplewood...

https://i.imgur.com/Aeuag9t.jpg

[twincitizen]

I know you're only joking, but honestly that easternmost 1-mile band of St. Paul between White Bear Ave and Maplewood is much more "Maplewood" than "St. Paul". It actually would make sense for St. Paul to end at White Bear Ave. Maplewood certainly couldn't ignore the area any more than St. Paul does today... and furthermore, a stagnating/failing east side drags Maplewood down with it.

[Anondson]

Nice post on Edina wrestling with ensuring their kids can afford to buy homes in the city in the future.

http://www.citypages.com/news/can-edina ... am-7791652

I don't think what Edina is trying now though comes close to helping when they give in to height fears as much as they do.

[grant1simons2]

My mom is a kindergarten teacher in Eden Prairie, and she just told me some surprising news. Eden Prairie is now down to 62% white in their population according to this years study. 13% is Somali now and there's also a large percentage of Indians as well.

[Anondson]

I started to get a hint that Eden Prairie was a growing concentration of South Asia Indians when I noticed the AMC Eden Prairie was continually showing Bollywood features.

[Wedgeguy]

Can anyone enlighten me as to the status and class of the old Interchange Park tower and office buildings at 394 and 169? Is WF the only tenant out there, or just the lead naming rights tenant. Is it considered class A or more like class B now?

[mattaudio]

I worked out there for a few months. WF is probably the largest tenant (and I think has space in at least 3 of the 4 buildings) but there are definitely other tenants in each building. While the leased spaces and lobbies have been freshened up (and it was probably the nicest cube I've had) it's probably either a high Class B or maybe a low Class A.

[HiawathaGuy]

Can anyone enlighten me as to the status and class of the old Interchange Park tower and office buildings at 394 and 169? Is WF the only tenant out there, or just the lead naming rights tenant. Is it considered class A or more like class B now?

“For a Class B complex, it has access to a lot of stuff you’d see in a Class A building.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/p ... rkers.html

[Wedgeguy]

Thanks, just wondering with new buildings being proposed in the burbs, Interchange Park and the Target IT building of 394 and Penn both opening up, and the big chunk of space in the Baker Complex. what type of tenant will they each be going after once they have to compete with their empty space. Who will up grade, who will just leave as is. What is in store for these empty spaces once WF moves to DTE?

[billhelm]

Wells has 3 full floors in the tower and parts of two other floors and also has space in each of the other buildings (not sure how much). In the tower, Epicor (software firm) has multiple floors, Prudential has at least a floor and Plus Relocation is on a couple of floors. There's also multiple other smaller financial services, accounting and legal tenants in the tower. No plans for Wells to vacate this space AFAIK - some people will move to DTE but they're always shuffling people around.