Hiawatha-Lake - Minnehaha - Downtown Longfellow

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Mooglemuffins
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Re: Hi-Lake and Minnehaha Mall Area (Target, Cub, etc.)

Postby Mooglemuffins » August 29th, 2017, 8:38 am

The "A food market" sign on the rendering looks conspicuously like Aldi. I'm gonna speculate that Aldi would like to relocate here since they cannot expand in their current mixed-use digs on the west side of Hiawatha. Both properties are owned by Wellington, so that would certainly simplify things with the leases, etc.
I'm not sure why Aldi would relocate there considering they are just finishing converting the Rainbow into a charter school right now. Unless the charter school isn't taking up the whole space. I thought it was, could be wrong though.

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby twincitizen » August 29th, 2017, 11:01 am

http://minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/pub ... df#page=58
The school doesn't take up the whole space. The school actually faces 28th Ave and takes up the "back half" of the building, with the 27th Ave frontage being subdivided into two medium-sized retail spaces. The larger of those spaces (20,000 sq ft) retains a hallway through the building to the truck dock and trash compactor on the 28th Ave frontage. 20k sq ft would definitely be on the larger side for Aldi, but their newer stores have been moving in that direction, up from the older 12k-14k sq ft stores.

I'd bet on the 20k sq ft space being a grocery store, and the rendering you posted absolutely looks like the architect took an Aldi store design and genericized it to "A Food Market"

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Mooglemuffins
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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby Mooglemuffins » August 29th, 2017, 11:29 am

Ahh I see, so the charter school is mainly on the half where hop wong and the phone store used to be but the other half of the Rainbow and the old cost cutters/smoke shop are still open.

Well I for one would be glad to have the Aldi's only a block or two from my house. I love going to Aldi's for the prices but man oh man the parking over at the one across from the YWCA is atrocious all the time. Such a cramped area to get in and out of.

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby SurlyLHT » August 29th, 2017, 11:39 am

I doubt it will be a grocery story given that you already have Target, Aldis, Cub and Longfellow Market nearby. I hope something wonderful moves in however!

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby Mooglemuffins » August 29th, 2017, 11:53 am

I doubt it will be a grocery story given that you already have Target, Aldis, Cub and Longfellow Market nearby. I hope something wonderful moves in however!
Anything is better than a shitty tobacco shop and a metro pcs store.

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby SurlyLHT » August 29th, 2017, 12:10 pm

Maybe a large nice restaurant with an outdoor plaza/patio? Trying to use my imagination...

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby Mooglemuffins » August 29th, 2017, 12:15 pm

I'm curious to see if those apartments in the new structure will end up having retail space on the first floor or if they will just be the apartments top to bottom. For example, if they set it up like some of the apartments over by the UofM where the first floor has a bunch of restaurants and whatnot. I would love to have some new fast casual places a block away instead of just Wendy's lol.

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby SurlyLHT » August 29th, 2017, 12:19 pm

A Chipolte would be welcomed.

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby Mooglemuffins » August 29th, 2017, 12:49 pm

A Chipolte would be welcomed.
That would be nice, I prefer Qdoba usually since their guac isn't extra and they also have queso. :D

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby amiller92 » August 29th, 2017, 12:49 pm

Well I for one would be glad to have the Aldi's only a block or two from my house. I love going to Aldi's for the prices but man oh man the parking over at the one across from the YWCA is atrocious all the time.
5-6 blocks is too far to walk/bike?

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby Mooglemuffins » August 29th, 2017, 7:13 pm

Well I for one would be glad to have the Aldi's only a block or two from my house. I love going to Aldi's for the prices but man oh man the parking over at the one across from the YWCA is atrocious all the time.
5-6 blocks is too far to walk/bike?
It isn't, I'm fine biking over there now. But it is nice to have one out my doorstep in the winter :P In any case, post dump incoming with notes from the meeting.

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby Mooglemuffins » August 29th, 2017, 7:27 pm

Nvm screw the dump I'm just going to link this stuff cause it's easier than pasting it here with formatting. First off, here are my notes from meeting including what was presented as well as the following Q&A session:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14mj ... sp=sharing

Next up the materials they handed out regarding the plans for the area. Apologies in advance for the phone pics, and one with part of my foot, I sadly do not have a scanner.

First off info about the general Master Plan for the Hi Lake Area with some info on what it is.

http://i.imgur.com/eyCUs0P.jpg

Next, some info regarding pedestrian zoning districts here and around the city

http://i.imgur.com/NsqXWRA.jpg

Lastly, a more detailed view up a hopeful plan for the Hi-Lake area in the future as we continue to develop.

http://i.imgur.com/q82o61u.jpg

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby Mooglemuffins » August 29th, 2017, 8:06 pm

To follow up, in terms of my view of how the meeting went. Overall it seemed pretty positive towards the new developments. Seems like the general consensus is that anything is better than a bunch of giant-ass empty parking lots. Like it says in the notes, the contiguous parking lots of Rainbow/Target/Cub are the 2nd largest asphalt empty space in the city behind the impound lot which is pretty awful so it sorely needs better usage. The only real negative comments from the meeting were from an older lady who offered her concerns about how this 'seemed like a done deal' and she felt she was 'at the wrong meeting' and walked out after her comment. A lot of her complaints seemed a bit NIMBY-ish to me tbh :/ Some complaints about all this talk of bike lanes and pedestrians but 'I don't have a bike so I don't care', complaints about the charter school and 'how does this benefit the neighborhood are these kids even from here why should we want them here', complaints about how 'she pays taxes and all this development is just making someone else money', complaints about all the density being problem etc. Aside from her comments the other somewhat negative questions were regarding design aspects and not liking the look of how modern apartment buildings going up in recent years are designed. But even with those it was more of a nitpicky thing and not a dealbreaker. I think everyone in general will be glad to see these crap parking lots turned into something else.

Was anyone else there and had any thoughts?

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby twincitizen » August 29th, 2017, 9:58 pm

Pleased to announce that I was right about Aldi :D

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby minneboom » August 29th, 2017, 10:58 pm

Overall I also thought the meeting was pretty positive. There were several good comments about trying to reach out to local businesses for some of the retail space rather than large chains. I also appreciated many comments about focusing on improvements to the public space (streets, plaza, cafes) around the buildings.

I was disappointed with the lack of discussion about the south end of the site. The inability to purchase the Autozone property, and keeping the Wendy's drive thru is really detrimental for the entire site. Wellington owns the Wendy's site and does not really seem to have a good solution for dealing with this building. I am hopeful that somehow everyone (city, developer, local leaders) can find a way to relocate or reconfigure the Wendys and redevelop the south end of the site.

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby Mooglemuffins » August 29th, 2017, 11:17 pm

Pleased to announce that I was right about Aldi :D
You were indeed props to you for that!
I was disappointed with the lack of discussion about the south end of the site. The inability to purchase the Autozone property, and keeping the Wendy's drive thru is really detrimental for the entire site. Wellington owns the Wendy's site and does not really seem to have a good solution for dealing with this building. I am hopeful that somehow everyone (city, developer, local leaders) can find a way to relocate or reconfigure the Wendys and redevelop the south end of the site.
I wholeheartedly agree. It is a shame the AutoZone owner isn't in the mood to sell, that space could be used better imo. As for the Wendy's I do hope they find some way to make a change to remodel it. At least from the picture of the pedestrian zones area it looks like that is what happened to the Taco Bell up on Franklin/Minnehaha. Used to have a Drive Thru and then last year got remodeled to its current drive thruless state. Goodness knows that Wendys needs a revamp, aside from the electronic menu boards the rest feels kind of sad and out of date. The main dining area and queueing area (with the old holes in the ground where the queue fencing used to be too) are just....enh. I'm all for it revamping into a more modern look like I've seen with newer Wendys franchise locations. For instance, their more modern architectural ones.Image

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby John21 » August 30th, 2017, 7:10 am

Really interesting that Aldi would keep the old store open after building this one. I like the talk of improvements for pedestrians. It's pretty awful right now. I don't mind the Wendys. If its entrance was on Lake or Minnehaha, then I would probably not like it. While it would be nice if they could purchase the Auto Zone and do something at the corner, the Target lot is the much bigger waste of space at that intersection.

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby Uptown46 » August 30th, 2017, 7:32 am

The Franklin/Minnehaha Taco Bell never had a drive thru. They definitely would have added one with the recent renovation if not for the pedestrian overlay zoning.

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby Mooglemuffins » August 30th, 2017, 7:46 am

Really interesting that Aldi would keep the old store open after building this one. I like the talk of improvements for pedestrians. It's pretty awful right now. I don't mind the Wendys. If its entrance was on Lake or Minnehaha, then I would probably not like it. While it would be nice if they could purchase the Auto Zone and do something at the corner, the Target lot is the much bigger waste of space at that intersection.
They couldn't speak too much to it since it was Aldi's research not their but I guess according to Aldi they feel like with the one over here and the previous one across Hiawatha they are serving 'two different demographics'. Tbh I would agree, a lot of the traffic at the current Aldi are Somali residents or others from the low income housing right there around the area. An Aldi over here would serve more of the young families here in Longfellow.

As for the target parking lot, it is't part of this particular project but from looking at the 'master plan' for the area it looks like they want to border the outer edges of all of that parking lot right along the street with (I assume) more multi-level structures with street level retail/restaurants and housing/offices above. Which would be fantastic and look way better than the 2/3rd of that parking lot that basically never gets used.
The Franklin/Minnehaha Taco Bell never had a drive thru. They definitely would have added one with the recent renovation if not for the pedestrian overlay zoning.
I could have sworn I drove thru there before the renovations..guess I misremembered.

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Re: Hi-Lake - Minnehaha Mall (Target, Cub, etc.) - Downtown Longfellow

Postby SurlyLHT » August 30th, 2017, 9:58 am

I was completely wrong about the Aldis. Both will be leasing from Wellington. this neighborhood would have a concentration of the Aldis in the city. Penn Ave N, Central NE?? E. Lake, Franklin and eventually the new one in Uptown. So currently there are


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