urbanMSP

So this is only 150 units?! Shocking, considering its mass. Hard to believe that other projects in Minneapolis and elsewhere can exceed 300 units, sometimes 500-600 units and more, especially in the Sun Belt.

Also, what a difference a few extra cuts, juts and angles makes to what would otherwise be a rectangular block.

So this is only 150 units?! Shocking, considering its mass. Hard to believe that other projects in Minneapolis and elsewhere can exceed 300 units, sometimes 500-600 units and more, especially in the Sun Belt.

Also, what a difference a few extra cuts, juts and angles makes to what would otherwise be a rectangular block.

it's student housing so there are larger more multiple bed units I believe.

The Bridges is student housing? Hmm

Technically it's private housing market to students. Like all of the other new developments on campus.

The Bridges is student housing? Hmm

if you look at their ads in the mndaily they clearly call themselves student housing.

Well I guess I'll skip looking at that location.

Website:
http://thebridgesdinkytown.com

*The Bridges, an 11-story, 210-unit building with fully furnished studio, 1, 2, 3 and 4-bedroom apartments, offers a unique and comfortable lifestyle for one or more students.

Website:
The Bridges, an 11-story, 210-unit building with fully furnished studio, 1, 2, 3 and 4-bedroom apartments, offers a unique and comfortable lifestyle for one or more students.

Four bedroom apartments is crazy. It's understandable because it is student housing but that for sure is the reason why it is a giant block of a building.

Now that the brick is going up this building is looking less hulking. It will be interesting to see how it turns out, but I think it's going to be a moderately attractive building.

Regarding the multiple bedrooms, if we want to increase density we need to have multi-bedroom apartments for the general market and not just students. There's no reason families can't live in apartments - in big cities, plenty of families live in apartments - but families need divided space, not the trendy luxxxury design "open floor plans". Families don't need that much square footage, but they need different spaces. Looking at layouts, many of these student housing apartments would also be great family apartments, and many of them also shoot at the middle of the market to boot. It would be nice to see options in this space in other growing neighborhoods.

egads!

I wish this would interact with 2nd St more somehow. Either put the entrance for the parking there, or at least make it easy to walk down to the river. It's more industrial down there now, but I'm sure that won't last forever.

I thought the same thing, having the parking entrance down there should have been a no brainer. Not even a pedestrian emergency exit.

Also, looking closely at the plans, there's no underground parking here, it's actually two stories of parking with 9 stories of apartments on top. I wonder why they didn't dig down here, especially considering how great it would have been to down down to 2nd street rather than open onto 10th Ave. Does 2 stories of parking above ground plus 9 stories of concrete apartments pencil out just as well as two stories of underground parking plus podium plus 6 stories of stick built on top?

Maybe the proximity to the two bridges would have made excavation excessively costly. Or the soil below needed remediation so simply capping it in place was cheaper?

Raising the units above parking enhances river views.

That is one way to think of it.

Overall cost of concrete tends to be cheaper than hauling costs for a large site like this. When you get to have 2 floors of underground, it usually starts getting much more expensive than above ground structured parking. My guess is it was a cost saving measure in addition to making MHNA happy.

Was there not an old gas station on part of that site at one time. Maybe they did not want to have to deal with the soil remediation? I'll say that this is a monster of a building, but I'll wait for it to get finished before I give my final judgment.

Gas station was on the other side of the street, where Floco is.