Iron Store - 528 Washington Ave N (Uncancelled)

[Multimodal]

Where is this taking place? Would love to go.

The Developers Forum on Wednesday, 7:00 - 8:30 in Edina City Hall Council Chambers. Panelists are:

Grady Hamilton – Trammel Crow (Avidor Edina Senior Housing Project)
Brent Rogers – Saturday Properties (Nolan Mains project partner)
Miranda Walker – Aeon
Jeff Huggett – Dominium (Edina Housing Foundation Board)
Stephanie Hawkinson – City of Edina Affordable Housing Development Manager

There will be ample time for audience questions. This is an opportunity to learn the facts and decision-making process involved in the production of affordable housing from the perspective of for-profit and non-profit developers.

[jtoemke]

The floor plates suck for residential honestly. Super deep. Cutting a light well out of the center would help. Typical residential construction is around 64ft wide. Stretched to 80ft works but creates lots of dark corners in the units and is honestly pretty terrible. This one is 120ft on the shallowest side - 163ft on the other.

So if they did "typical" unit depths of about 30ft with a 5ft hallway, that would still leave almost 55 feet in the center with nothing in it.

What about a combo of residential and non-residential uses on the same floorplate? I'm not sure if there are multiple elevator banks in the building, but seems like you could get a nice wall or L of residential units with a hallway, then have some sort of other use on the rest of the floorplates (possibly with lightwells). Seems like having bright, open spaces with natural light is more important for office floorplates than having actual views. Heck many office tower windows on lower floors in the CBD have no view other than other office tower windows.

Mixing uses horizontally, not vertically is usually avoided because of fire separation requirements in the building code, but its for sure possible and I'm on board.

[alexschief]

Speaking of the floorplates, this would be a great place for Sheridan to take their bowling alley concept that they've twice failed with at the Guthrie liner parcel.

[MNdible]

Curling Club > Bowling Alley

[Silophant]

It's a giant building, why not both?

[HiawathaGuy]

Speaking of the floorplates, this would be a great place for Sheridan to take their bowling alley concept that they've twice failed with at the Guthrie liner parcel.

YES! A Pinstripes + a curling hall would be amazingly awesome over here and fit in well with the existing restaurants/breweries/residential.

[contrast]

Sounds like the most logical solution is reuse as office space with decent sized floor plates. Why force something that’s not meant to be?

[xandrex]

Back from dead...as a market rate, mixed-use project: https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... oject.html

[alexschief]

It's better with the retail. The crane room portion could look fascinating from the street.

I'm bothered by the lack of any interest in the southeastern portion of the site. The two story building at 508 Washington is a pretty ordinary structure, is it worth preserving? The surface parking lot at the corner is certainly not worth preserving. Why not redevelop those two parcels to a much greater intensity?

It's an enormous missed opportunity to leave a prime corner parcel untouched in the North Loop while the rest of the block is developed. I'd like the CoW to encourage the developer to think bigger for those parcels.

[grant1simons2]

I'm bothered by the lack of any interest in the southeastern portion of the site. The two story building at 508 Washington is a pretty ordinary structure, is it worth preserving? The surface parking lot at the corner is certainly not worth preserving. Why not redevelop those two parcels to a much greater intensity?

I'm going to say the 2 story structure is definitely worth preserving. A few times I've walked by and been lucky enough to see the garage door open. Inside is a very beautiful wood board interior that hasn't been changed since it was built in 1916. It's all paneled with exposed brick on the the East and West, with a staircase (also wood clad) in the front of the building. Now it's used for parking...

Now the question is, will they keep it like this? Because if not then I think it can be taken down.

[Nathan]

I'm very intrigued by the idea that 6th connects to 2nd st... bad rendering or knowledge of an opening?

[EOst]

I'm bothered by the lack of any interest in the southeastern portion of the site. The two story building at 508 Washington is a pretty ordinary structure, is it worth preserving? The surface parking lot at the corner is certainly not worth preserving. Why not redevelop those two parcels to a much greater intensity?

Historic Name: Lindsay Brothers Warehouse
Common Name: 508 Washington Avenue North
Architect: E.C. Haley
Year Built: 1910
Status: Contributing

"This symmetrical two-story brick warehouse is divided into three bays with brick banding and corbelling forming the only decorative elements.64 The entire first story storefront has been infilled and a garage door added in the center bay. The structure is used as a parking garage. Despite the infilled storefront the building retains its integrity."

[NE_love]

I'm very intrigued by the idea that 6th connects to 2nd st... bad rendering or knowledge of an opening?

Bad rendering.

[twincitizen]

I'm bothered by the lack of any interest in the southeastern portion of the site. The two story building at 508 Washington is a pretty ordinary structure, is it worth preserving? The surface parking lot at the corner is certainly not worth preserving. Why not redevelop those two parcels to a much greater intensity?

It's an enormous missed opportunity to leave a prime corner parcel untouched in the North Loop while the rest of the block is developed. I'd like the CoW to encourage the developer to think bigger for those parcels.

At the very least, they should build a small, 1-2 story retail/office building to hold the corner. The back 2/3rd of the surface lot could remain surface parking with minimal detriment to the streetscape.

[luigipaladio]

I agree that it would be good to fill that little parking lot at the end of the block, otherwise, I am glad to see that someone picked this up. The Duffy building is just too big and too much of a presence to sit untouched for any longer. With the mount of retail they have planned, this will do a lot to continue the enlivening of Washington through the North Loop. Bravo!

[5th Ave Guy]

They have other properties in the neighborhood (along 6th ave?), correct? Are those still being used?

[mattaudio]

This makes me long even more for a 3rd St connection across the rail trench, particularly as a backup corridor for buses and bike/walk. Washington Ave just gets too choked around Hennepin and Nicollet, and the North Loop could really use some better transit.

[twincitizen]

Kinda have to accept that a 3rd St bridge over the tracks/trail is not possible in a post-T3/Dock St Flats world. There’s just no way. Prior to those developments, sure. 4th St N is truly the only hope for something between Washington and 5th St N. But generally, yes I agree that another local connection would be very beneficial to take pressure off Washington and 5th St.

[maka_ska]

There is a 3rd Street walk/bike bridge attached to the viaduct.

[ztr421]

There is a 3rd Street walk/bike bridge attached to the viaduct.

A nice alteration to this would be an offshoot from the existing walk/bike bridge that connects down to 3rd Ave.