Saint Paul - General Topics

[seanrichardryan]

ALSO, I was chatting with my neighbors yesterday about this. St. Thomas made a $61m offer to buy the Town & Country Club golf course for athletic facilities. Golf courses aren't great land use, but I think this is worse. https://twitter.com/TheoKeith/status/14 ... 7803882496

[MinneapBliss]

Wow. I wonder if they're hedging with respect to the Highland Bridge land they were possibly after, or if this would be in addition to that? I don't typically have an aversion to golf course re-development, but I agree it's hard to picture this being an improvement, at least on first glance.

[seanrichardryan]

It would be Highland or this site. They're just 'exploring ideas'.
From the director of neighbor relations:

Friends and neighbors: This is an exploration, not a done deal. St. Thomas wants to keep any new D1 athletics facilities in St. Paul. We've hired a consultant to help us find the right location. Highland Bridge is an option. Town & Country could be an option -- but we can't even explore it without first knowing how the membership would feel. We will, of course, be engaging with the neighborhood as well.

As an immediate neighbor myself to both TCC & UST, not a big fan.

[alexschief]

Town and Country is a massive waste of prime urban land, and I would love for it to be redeveloped. But... I'm not sure I would love for it to be developed by St. Thomas.

If they were to use an economical portion of the site for their fields and allow the rest to be redeveloped into a neighborhood, that would be a big win. The southern portion of the site will be served by two B Line stations and would be perfect for apartments. It would be nice to have a park (maybe with an observation tower? it's a good spot) built on the hill and along the creek as well.

[LakeCharles]

Screen Shot 2022-02-22 at 10.01.00 AM.jpg

Could we end up with something like this? That would obviously be a massive improvement for everybody, including St. Thomas.

[Nick]

We’ve got to be getting pretty close to the most heavily-stadiumed metro area in the country at this point? At least per capita.

[Anondson]

Could we end up with something like this? That would obviously be a massive improvement for everybody, including St. Thomas.

I believe they said only land east of Otis. That would leave the clubhouse out.

Otherwise restoring the waterfall and filled in gorge would be a goal.

[Didier]

Not directly part of Town & Country, but there's a ton of room for improvement on Cretin. The road is really cramped now and doesn't even have a sidewalk on the west side.

What'd I'd really like to see, though, is a parkway treatment with a median. For such a major entrance into the city (and also to Longfellow), you really start from an armpit.

[bubzki2]

^ Agreed. The problem is that Hamline, Dale, and some others are equally as bad. I would love to know if boulevards or 4-3 conversions on all 3 of Cretin, Hamline, and Dale would have a meaningful impact on traffic patterns. There's been a ton less car congestion at peak times since COVID hit.

[COLSLAW5]

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... offer.html

looks like the golf course is saying no to any sale at all

[seanrichardryan]

Not directly part of Town & Country, but there's a ton of room for improvement on Cretin. The road is really cramped now and doesn't even have a sidewalk on the west side.

What'd I'd really like to see, though, is a parkway treatment with a median. For such a major entrance into the city (and also to Longfellow), you really start from an armpit.

What if instead we removed access to 94.

[Didier]

Then getting anywhere outside of my neighborhood would become much more of a hassle.

[Scott Wood]

Screen Shot 2022-02-22 at 10.01.00 AM.jpg

Could we end up with something like this? That would obviously be a massive improvement for everybody, including St. Thomas.

Why so much single family (and R2, no less)? Traditional neighborhood zoning should be the default for new plats, assuming no Ford-style site plan.

[Bakken2016]

https://www.twincities.com/2022/03/09/l ... the-month/

CVS at Snelling and University will be closing at the end of the month, hopefully this means that corner can be redeveloped!


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[gopherfan]

https://www.twincities.com/2022/03/09/l ... the-month/

CVS at Snelling and University will be closing at the end of the month, hopefully this means that corner can be redeveloped!

I noticed that other shops on that block are closing soon too, so perhaps there really is something in the works going on!

[Nathan]

https://www.twincities.com/2022/03/09/l ... the-month/

CVS at Snelling and University will be closing at the end of the month, hopefully this means that corner can be redeveloped!

I noticed that other shops on that block are closing soon too, so perhaps there really is something in the works going on!

Can you be more specific? Ons and the turf club are on that block and great local staple businesses.

[Didier]

I'm not sure it'd really be a win for a bunch of small storefronts to close for redevelopment when there are miles of parking lots waiting to be developed across the street.

[Bakken2016]

The CVS is on its own parcel, none of the nearby stores would have to be taken to develop it from a single story retail to mixed used residence and retail.

[thespeedmccool]

I doubt anyone's going to jump on redeveloping this parcel with the rent control issue still up in the air.

If Highland Bridge and others are pumping the brakes on their already planned and approved developments, how are we to expect that anyone would be interested in redeveloping a parcel from scratch?

I hope Mayor Carter gets on that new constuction exemption soon.

[bubzki2]

I don't think people realize what a mistake that suburban-style CVS was at that corner. Something nice and shiny would go a long ways to improving the aesthetics and feel of this whole commercial district. And yes, please don't tear down On's!