urbanMSP

http://millcitytimes.com/news/superior- ... janua.html

Edit: 28 pages of plans
https://lennar.app.box.com/s/hgm62wnaht ... mjfrhmuvbj

Attractive enough. Those phase one designs certainly do not show anything like enough space where "100" retail spaces would fit. Not a chance.

Hope phase two isn't delayed too much.

Love the detail they've shared, but I was hoping for a deeper public space with the structure wrapping around it on three sides. It's nice that there will be a nice set back from the street, but the excess public art and landscaping really seems to close it off from the street.

Can't say there's much to criticize. Leaves the old ROW open as ped/public space, and I actually like how the retail is set back a bit further than deeper into the woonerf. Great frontage along University where the grade change to a bridge could have been left to die as a blank wall. About as good as we can expect from a single developer on a whole block (and all the parking you'd expect, of course).

Plans show 17,243 sf of retail and 4,941 sf restaurant.

For reference, Latitude 45 had around 10,000 sf total, of which around 6k was for the "destination" Ryan Burnet restaurant and 4k for a retail tenant. So it sounds like this will be a pretty large restaurant, and the 17k sf of retail could be anywhere from 4-8 retailers. I'd imagine they have something fairly large potentially lined up to take a chunk of that space.

Long story short, there's a lot to like here. The parking structure should be nearly invisible from all angles but the rail corridor. This is a huge win for the neighborhood.

I appreciate that they're leaving the other half of the site empty, so the Phase 2 plans can be potentially be modified to avoid the twin tower concept, or, if it falls through entirely, bought by someone else in the future and developed independently. Much better than the Stanton Eclipse proposal, with its unacceptably high risk of the second phase falling through and leaving the block covered by a massively oversized parking podium.

I really like the way it looks and what it's going to do to kind of cap that edge of the neighborhood where it really feels open and baron right now. Also, I think that even if phase two doesn't pan out with them, they'll sell the land and SOMETHING would go there sooner or later (hopefully sooner). I think it was someone here said that this could be a more desirable neighborhood than uptown in coming years, and with quality products like this, I can definitely see that happening.

^It will almost certainly hold a certain cachet with a crowd that's perhaps slightly older than the Uptown stereotype. In talks with NIEBNA neighborhood people, they very clearly want this to be a dense, tall area that's also rather expensive.

Unless you're a radical anti-development type, turning this neighborhood into a "dense, tall area that's also rather expensive" is kind of a no-brainer. Think of the stakeholders there today: Nicollet Island homeowners, and East Bank condo owners, and I suppose business owners too. There's not one single-family home on the "mainland". Aside from the Cobalt (Lunds) development, all of the condos in the neighborhood are 20-30 years old. The townhomes on 1st Ave to the west of this site range from 10-13 years old. Improvements to this neighborhood could only have a positive impact on their property values. While the neighborhood is largely ownership condos, and they'd likely prefer future development to be condos too, they'll look past that on this site without hesitation, if that's what it takes to get it developed.


Unrelated to the above, here are some media takes:

MSP Biz Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... polis.html
The Journal: http://www.journalmpls.com/news-feed/ni ... ting-plans

^No doubt, and new construction will inevitably be expensive.

I think my bigger point was that NIEBNA isn't just pushing for density, they're pushing almost completely for high-rise density. And they're not afraid to sacrifice the so-called sacred cows of the neighborhood. They aren't blinking an eye at Nye's and they're already rumbling about places like Kramarczuk's and Surdyk's maybe going away. I can probably find more than a handful of people who aren't "radical anti-development types" that wouldn't touch those places. Not saying that's necessarily right, but certainly there are more than a few "Mpls 500K" types that would stand in front of those wrecking balls.

They see uptown, they want uptown. They know they have the advantage too since they have no height restrictions to deal with and are closer to the CBD. Its a shame really, Nordeast is where all the hipsters and artists went after uptown and the north loop started gentrifying. Maybe they'll head to St. Paul? That will all but guarantee a development boom there in 5 years. It's a shame really, since despite all our boasts on this front we're not much better than suburbanites. We're both more than willing to bulldoze the authentic natural/man-made features that attract us to the lifestyle in pursuit of idealized but generic housing.

On a different note, think of how cool our skyline will look! We'll have pockets of high-rise development spaced out by neighborhoods of low-rises. West to East we'll have: West Calhoun- High Rises, Uptown-Low to mid rises, Downtown-towers, Nicollet island- townhomes, Cedar Riverside-High rises, Dinkytown- Low rises, St. Anthony Main-High rises.

It's a shame? First, I don't think the artists/hipsters ever really went for Old St. Anthony... they landed further into NE than that. Second, this is replacing an old industrial building that has been an empty pit in the ground for quite some time.

Yep. I wouldn't argue with that comment in the Nye's thread, but this isn't bulldozing anything.

Also important to remember that in most cases a business and a building are not synonymous. I would say part of Nye's charm is in the building, but I wouldn't say the same for Kramarczuk's or Surdyk's.

I was more responding to the grumblings about redeveloping Kramarczuk's or Surdyk's, as well as the already happening Nye's redevelopment. If they all can be incorporated into the base of new buildings, great, but those businesses may end up losing the all-important local community support anyways (ie they "sold out" to developers).

Also important to remember that in most cases a business and a building are not synonymous. I would say part of Nye's charm is in the building, but I wouldn't say the same for Kramarczuk's or Surdyk's.

I agree with you (generally businesses are not synonymous with their buildings, though of course some are). But so often businesses sell out their land and with it, the business goes too. For every Sally's there's a Nye's. And the community usually reads that as a developer "bulldozing the charm" out of an area, even if that's a fairly shallow read.

Hot damn, this makes me happy. If only the rest of the city realized they could rise up and demand better development for their neighborhoods and that the developers might actually listen! A committed council member probably helps though.

A committed council member probably helps though.

Absolutely true. We would never have reached this point if Diane Hofstede was still representing the ward.

Minor updates on Lennar's pending purchase of the property: http://www.startribune.com/blogs/294297331.html

It's a shame? First, I don't think the artists/hipsters ever really went for Old St. Anthony... they landed further into NE than that. Second, this is replacing an old industrial building that has been an empty pit in the ground for quite some time.

Artists and hipsters are concentrated further up in the arts/brewery area of NE. I pass them on their "fixies" on the way home.