urbanMSP

Lowertown Bike Shop moving from the Jax Building to Union Depot:

http://www.twincities.com/2016/02/16/al ... uch-of-it/

Opening is in late April.

Also from the above article:

After recategorizing one vacant area as “event space,” the lone remaining space to be leased is a 2,200-square-foot restaurant location overlooking the main concourse.

I find it hard to fathom a new restaurant surviving in this space with all of the new competition in Lowertown. Isn't there some sort of better retail fit for this space?

I'm taking the large space is the old Lee Ann Chin's restaurant that has been empty since that restaurant close, East front space. The event space would be the area above in the mezzanine above Christo's kitchen space. Has been used as event space off and on I think for years.

A little coverage of Biden's visit yesterday:

http://www.startribune.com/biden-says-s ... 369310791/

I'm not sure why it worked out this way, but Rachel Maddow also came to the depot yesterday, in order to hold an interview with Biden while he was visiting. She hosted her show from the Red Cap room which overlooks the waiting room, both for an early edition at 7 pm Central Time and again at 10 pm, bookending a town hall event for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders over in Nevada.

Video of her interview is here, with a very conspicuously placed cart with "UNION DEPOT" written on it behind them:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show ... -joe-biden

And just for a taste of what it looked like when she was hosting her show, here's one of the clips from the later edition:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watc ... 6011203868

A few people could be seen wandering through the waiting room as she did her show, but it was pretty quiet. The westbound #7 Empire Builder showed up at about 9:45 pm while the town hall was still being shown, then departed at 10:20 pm. They were showing a number of clips from the town hall and the Biden interview while the train was there, so there wasn't much opportunity to see foot traffic. Also, since Biden's speech had been held earlier in the day, there weren't all that many chairs out in the waiting room -- they usually get shoved into the concourse over Kellogg Boulevard (directly below the Red Cap room) when there's an event going on.

Damn, did not know Rachel M was going to be in town. I would have like to have seen her. One classy anchor for a cable show.

A non-paywalled article from F&C about Union Depot angling off the news that Christos Greek Restaurant will not be renewing their 10-year lease. RCRRA is sending out an RFP for new tenants in the space this week. I hope they can get someone to use the mezzanine space behind where Christos has been operating, though I'm not sure a restaurant is the best fit for the footprint they've been occupying in the middle of the main hall. I guess I'd rather see some attempt at retail there, but of course our downtowns have frequently failed to wish that into existence in the past...

http://finance-commerce.com/2016/04/uni ... the-verge/

A non-paywalled article from F&C about Union Depot angling off the news that Christos Greek Restaurant will not be renewing their 10-year lease. RCRRA is sending out an RFP for new tenants in the space this week. I hope they can get someone to use the mezzanine space behind where Christos has been operating, though I'm not sure a restaurant is the best fit for the footprint they've been occupying in the middle of the main hall. I guess I'd rather see some attempt at retail there, but of course our downtowns have frequently failed to wish that into existence in the past...

http://finance-commerce.com/2016/04/uni ... the-verge/

I read the StarTrib article about this first.

http://www.startribune.com/christos-to- ... 375788361/

It states that the new RFP for the restaurant space calls for: 7 day service from 7 AM to 11 PM, catering for events, and "grab and go" food and beverage options. All of those things make sense for Union Depot, but insisting on them all from a single vendor is not a good idea and it will eliminate most people from consideration. If this is what they requested of Christo's before they chose to exit, then I'm not surprised they are leaving.

Exactly. I'd rather see a few vendors providing slices of that desired service level. Maybe a breakfast/lunch counter, a lunch/dinner restaurant with its own dining area on the mezzanine, shared/public seating on the headhouse ground floor, and space for grab and go vendors.

Hello, D'Amico!

The Union Depot is having a fairly big Train Days event this year, partly since they're celebrating the building's 90th anniversary. It will be this Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 3 pm.

http://www.uniondepot.org/traindays/

I'm interested to see the Amtrak Exhibit Train, which hasn't officially visited St. Paul before (it's passed through on the way to other destinations, but never been open to the public). It has already arrived -- Robert Ball took a nice photo of it last night:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22397831@N05/26595785932/

We're planning to go. Have to squeeze it in with the Home Tour and Art in Bloom.

We'll be there too. toddler.shoes loves trains (just like dad and grandpa).

We should all meet up.

I'm planning on coming on Saturday.

Definitely coming Saturday, may bring a few others.

Edward Russell stumbled upon Train Day at SPUD.
https://twitter.com/e_russell

We spent about two hours there this morning. It was a ton of fun. Obviously, the 21-month-old toddler didn't quite understand why his dad and grandpa were geeking out over climbing into (and passing him up into) an F unit, but it was a great time had by all. Could have done without the wind, though. Brr.

Wished there was more food there. We had to leave early because Julian was just getting crabby without food. He was very disappointed there was no mini train ride. I mean I guess there was (we asked later) but absolutely no one was out there helping people figure out if they were in the right place. Several families left with us in frustration.

I did like the variety of vendors. Unfortunately, said 3yo tantrums meant we didn't get to tour the trains.

I was there and it was a lot of fun, even though I don't know that much about trains to be honest. Nice to walk a few blocks from home to see things like this. From the looks of the crowd, maybe I need to start thinking about having a kid to warrant my interest in these train-centric events in the future.

I haven't been to Union Depot before so my sister and I decided to go and take advantage of the free park and ride and free LRT passes. It took about an hour and 20 minutes from the 28th Ave station as opposed to probably a half hour driving and my sister was like "that takes a long time but at least you don't have to drive in downtown".

Pretty nice building and liked seeing the old Hiawatha observation car and the cab of the old steam engine.