urbanMSP

Vacant Rockler Woodworking building sold for $700k. Seems cheap for that location if they intend to keep the existing building. No word on a tenant.
http://finance-commerce.com/2013/01/top ... -for-700k/

This was the site that Art Materials wanted to move in to if Trader Joe's had knocked down their current space. They wanted out of that building...probably the only business on that block that was in favor of Trader Joe's.

EDIT: I was searching for information about when Rockler went under and found this e-democracy thread...a fun read. http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mp ... ma8IvLAkp2

E-democracy (and nowadays Patch) seem to be popular NIMBY/whiner hangouts. That e-democracy thread has a genuinely interesting back and forth about neighborhood growth and change, particularly Uptown, Lyn-Lake, etc.

I noticed passing by Hennepin today that this store is no more. They also closed their location in Columbus, OH just recently and that didn't even make the 1 year mark. Time to guess what will move in.

They closed about a month ago.

well that didnt last long

I never even heard of this place.

I never even heard of this place.

Ahem. Neither had I.

Unrelated, anybody know a good source for tasteful leatherware?

Sorry, The Cockpit closed too. I'd try some of the online boutiques.

Is everyone in this forum gay? Looks like I need to make happy hour.

Good riddance to Hustler and their cheesy products. Cockpit, however, was a higher quality store that was geared towards rubber/leather fetish community gay and straight. It was more in tune with the character and demographics of Uptown. We could use another store like that in the area.

Is everyone in this forum gay? Looks like I need to make happy hour.

Not all on here are family, but there is a good showing of us!

Is everyone in this forum gay? Looks like I need to make happy hour.

Not all on here are family, but there is a good showing of us!

Yes. And many of us live in the areas where a lot of the new development is occuring right now.

hustler closed? meg tuthill must be pissed.

does this kind of business work anyplace but in our localized red light district downtown?

hustler closed? meg tuthill must be pissed.

does this kind of business work anyplace but in our localized red light district downtown?

The only ones I can think of are Smitten Kitten and Venus Unveiled, both of which have been in Lyn-Lake for years.

The one in East Lakeview in Chicago closed as well.

I understood closing was pre-planned; they were temporary in nature- (more so than everything else)

Between this, the library, and Lime popping out of the ground and Track29 and Elan getting exterior finishes, there should be plenty of construction to look at in Uptown this spring/summer. 2013 will be a tough year to beat until Midtown Corridor LRT, Mozaic 2.0, and Calhoun Square 2.0 are all under construction in 2016

"Midtown Corridor LRT"? Is that what we're calling the Greenway line?

I think Mozaic 2.0 will start much sooner than 2016, more like late 2013/early 2014. The condition for 2.0 to start was 80%-85% occupancy of 1.0, which has almost already happened. I doubt that they've been sitting on their thumbs this whole time waiting for 1.0 to reach critical mass too, meaning they'll have prelim sketches and mock-ups ready to present in very short order (this is my hunch, not inside info).

And I don't know what is in store for Calhoun Square 2.0 anymore, not after they nixed the plans for that 7 story mixed-use condo/retail thing before the housing bust. Other sites that will be hot to track will almost suredly include:

-Arby's
-McDonald's/Cheapo Lot
-Rainbow Foods
-K-Mart/Nicollet

What am I missing? Wasn't there talk about something happening to the remaining "under-use" SFH or small apartments that front Lake Calhoun between Lake and Lagoon? There are also some under-used parcels between Lake and Lagoon further East until Hennipen [sic] if I remember correctly....

The surface parking lot bounded by the uptown theater, Lunds, and Mesa needs to become something better

All of those parcels you mentioned and more are on my map. And yes, I said 2016 in a very general, non-literal sense. I also think Mo2aic will be underway before 2016, and Midtown corridor will not begin construction until AT LEAST 2017. It would make too much sense to get it up an running at the same time as Southwest, even though it is entirely possible. No alignment choices, no property acquisition, no station area planning (not really anyways, other than Nicollet, most are fully developed and growing). Just design it and build it. I think Levinson wrote about this on Streets.mn a while back.

Hopefully the new councilmember for Ward 10 will make some phone calls to the owners of Calhoun Square and put the pressure on them to do SOMETHING on that site.

Strib covers the boom, now with video: http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 69261.html