Wabasha Center (Former Macy's) - Downtown St. Paul

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mulad
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Re: Former Macy's Site

Postby mulad » June 24th, 2015, 8:58 am

It has to be Wabasha. The side facing Cedar is where the bulk of the parking structure is. The side facing 6th has a steep grade to it and has ramps for parking access sticking out.

Wedgeguy
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Re: Former Macy's Site

Postby Wedgeguy » June 24th, 2015, 9:12 am

Image

I really like this. I wonder if the front is supposed to be Cedar? Or 6th?
If you are to take that as the Macy's site , then that would be Wabasha to have that glass front, as Cedar is lined with the parking garage. It could not be pulled off unless you tear out and rework the parking garage. Again 6th is part parking garage and where the parking garage come out so I can't see that happening without the lose of the parking structure which would mean very costly modifications. But due to the elevation drop in this pic, it looks like a proposal for Cedar, that would have a very expensive modification to remove the parking decks and the brick walls. I don't think the Wild or the city wants to lose the parking garage due to its convenience to the area and the building.

That set up could work with out the glass wall if the rink and addition are built on top of the parking garage and the Cedar entrance basically stays where it is now, near Wells Fargo Tower, and you just have to walk to elevator banks that are not that far from the entrance. The basic old building walls would stay the same due to the parking structure, but they sure could have a glass pavilion built above it. There may be a parking garage pedestrian entrance on Cedar that is showing up in the front of this proposal. Been ages since I walk long Cedar but I do believe there is an entrance to the ramp mid block.

Tcmetro
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Re: Former Macy's Site

Postby Tcmetro » June 24th, 2015, 9:34 am

I'd imagine that the rendering is showing the Wabasha side (maybe I'm wrong though.) 6th is a dead zone because of the massive exit from the parking ramp.

RailBaronYarr
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Re: Former Macy's Site

Postby RailBaronYarr » June 24th, 2015, 9:52 am

Some good nuggets in that email from the Target real estate person on why DT StP isn't viable (and clues into their urban business model, too):
Residential Population
•Lack of residential population density
•Prototypical Target Express locations have a trade area size of 20,000 people but the downtown St. Paul road connectivity puts the trade area in isolation
•Fragmented residential population

Daytime Employment
•Fragmented daytime population instills difficulty to serve all daytime population (capitol area, state office buildings, across river, etc.)
•High office vacancy at 18%

Traffic
•Limited hours of traffic */onday through Friday, 012+3 donton is not busy during the eekend
•Low car traffic counts
- Wabasha Street - 8,800 daily
- Cedar Avenue - 6,000 daily
- E 6th Street - 8,687 daily
•Low Pedestrian Traffic

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Re: Former Macy's Site

Postby seanrichardryan » August 12th, 2015, 11:29 am

Q. What, what? A. In da butt.

Wedgeguy
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Re: Former Macy's Site

Postby Wedgeguy » August 12th, 2015, 2:00 pm

Glad to see another partner come in and help get some credence to this project. This should help make things much more viable for the rest of the building. I have a lot of faith in the Port Authority and getting projects completed. You have now gotten 3 commitments for the building between, Walgreens, the Wild, and Hamline.

twincitizen
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Re: Former Macy's Site

Postby twincitizen » September 11th, 2015, 1:13 pm

Getting closer to signing on the dotted line: http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... nants.html

There are a lot of moving parts here. It will be an enormous victory for St. Paul and the Port Authority if they can pull off this extremely complicated deal. Fingers crossed!

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Re: Former Macy's Site

Postby Wedgeguy » September 11th, 2015, 1:51 pm

Redeveloping that would be a great relief for the City of St. Paul. The next two projects will be what happens along Kellogg on the West/Jail site. Another big hole that will be developing down the road is what will happen with the old Ecolab campus once they move to the old Travelers tower? St. Paul seems to have a bad case of musical chairs with office users. Is the old Lawson building back up to near full or is there still a chunk of vacant space in that tower too??

acs
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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby acs » September 18th, 2015, 10:49 am


Wedgeguy
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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby Wedgeguy » September 18th, 2015, 11:01 am

Hope this will be enough to get things moving for a spring construction date. Hopefully they can get interior demo done this winter.

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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby Didier » September 18th, 2015, 11:21 am

It's never been clear to me how the Minnesota Wild component will work.

Would they have a practice facility inside and build a rink on the roof? That's what I assumed from previous articles, with the team facilities being hidden inside and a public-esque rink on the roof. But this article clearly says "The master plan includes a Minnesota Wild practice hockey rink on the roof."

If that's the case, wouldn't they need to build a dome or something?

Wedgeguy
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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby Wedgeguy » September 18th, 2015, 11:53 am

See pic on top of this page from June 24th. Rink will be on the upper level while the support is located down in the lower part of the building. So no off the Ice and into the locker room from my understanding. This will not be like the Timberwolves and Lynx where everything is grouped together. My best guess is the locker rooms/support are in the basement which don't need windows and the space is a lot cheaper than other space that can be rented out for more.

Is the Walgreens going to be located across from their old store near the Well Fargo building, or on the corner of 6th and Wabasha of this project.

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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby David Greene » September 18th, 2015, 12:42 pm

For the life of me I can't imagine how more office space in DT St. Paul could be a winner right now.

Didier
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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby Didier » September 18th, 2015, 12:50 pm

I guess I should have looked more closely at the drawing above.

Although, if that is actually what they're thinking, I wouldn't say the rink is "on the roof." It's more "on the top floor."

KML_1981
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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby KML_1981 » September 18th, 2015, 2:19 pm

Really hope this all works out and turns out well.

Huge news for St. Paul though. Mayor Coleman must be relieved. Maybe now the city can focus on some other major projects more thoroughly. Jail/riverfront, Palace Theatre, etc.

Wedgeguy
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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby Wedgeguy » September 18th, 2015, 3:10 pm

For the life of me I can't imagine how more office space in DT St. Paul could be a winner right now.
I'm thinking that most of the office space in the Macy's building will either be one user or a group of smaller office tenants that would not really work well in an office tower environment. Some spaces that need foot traffic to generate business along the skyway. With Walgreen's moving over, medical offices might be a good fit there like the Nicollet mall store.

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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby at40man » September 28th, 2015, 12:13 pm

Interesting article from MinnPost, has more of a personal touch of how this got off the ground, as well as how the joint venture between Oppidan and the Port Authority will work out.

https://www.minnpost.com/politics-polic ... acy-s-site

Another rendering:
Image

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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby seanrichardryan » September 28th, 2015, 3:08 pm

So the 'A' word bubble is clearly the Walgreens logo. Appears a restaurant is pitched for the other corner. Anyone notice the rink has a panel that opens up to the air (see earlier rendering).
Q. What, what? A. In da butt.

ProspectPete
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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby ProspectPete » September 29th, 2015, 4:19 am

Anyone notice that in the renderings the "skyway to nowhere" is missing? They are going to skin that building alive.

twincitizen
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Re: Former Macy's Site - Downtown St. Paul

Postby twincitizen » September 29th, 2015, 8:24 am

Going back in time two years ago or so, who'd have ever thought this would turn out better than the Block-E renovation?

(Obviously implementation is everything, so assuming this actually gets built as planned)


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