urbanMSP

17-story apartment project pitched for Dinkytown
https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... ytown.html
*UNLOCKED*

Nice.

I know there is more demand for student housing near the University, but I wouldn't have said there would be this much demand. Along with the project proposed for University and previously approved stuff, there are probably over 3,000 beds being proposed or built in the area.

While I'm skeptical that all of these projects will get built, if they do, then it could free up a lot of formerly student housing in old homes in Marcy Holmes and elsewhere, which might then become relatively affordable rentals for non-students. Or, it might push those property owners to renovate or sell.

I know there is more demand for student housing near the University, but I wouldn't have said there would be this much demand. Along with the project proposed for University and previously approved stuff, there are probably over 3,000 beds being proposed or built in the area.

While I'm skeptical that all of these projects will get built, if they do, then it could free up a lot of formerly student housing in old homes in Marcy Holmes and elsewhere, which might then become relatively affordable rentals for non-students. Or, it might push those property owners to renovate or sell.

When I was in HS looking at colleges (15 years ago), the U was labeled as a commuter school that didn't have a strong campus life. Wonder how much the new housing is converting would-be commuters to residential students? Fully aware these numbers are probably hard to quantify.

Here's the CoW packet.
1026 beds in 324 units, with 211 parking spaces.

I bet the commuter student to residential student conversion is a big factor. In addition to traditional commuter students living with their parents maybe moving to apartments near campus, when I was a student (graduated in 2014) it was fairly common for older undergrads and grad students to live further afield, in NE or Uptown. I wonder if that's becoming less common with the flood of new units by campus?

Really hope that CoW tears this thing apart. Having a split underground/wrapped parking structure adds this additional ramp that disturbs pedestrian space. Loading entrance is on 15th, which is almost guaranteed to block out bike and ped traffic every once in a while, if not every day.

Going all the way up to 17 stories with very minimal setbacks is a bit worrying. Would not love to have a Chateau wind blaster Pt. II. As always, Dinky will always use more retail as it continues to be thrown at it and get filled. Add some to the 14th Ave frontage and lose out on those 4 corner units. 14th could be a pedestrianized street one day from 6th to University if we don't add anymore parking entrances to the street.

I started at the U in 2001, and at that time it was considered a commuter school. Although coming from Detroit Lakes, it felt like a normal school to me. But during my time, there was an apartment building boom. And parties went from being in the surrounding neighborhoods and almost needing to take a cab to get to, to being right next to campus as people moved closer to the school. I would assume this has only continued. It always amazed me how far some lived from campus. All of these new apartment complexes will only improve campus life. And hopefully they do get over built, as that will then drive down prices a bit.

Here's the CoW packet. Now called The Standard at Dinkytown.

Here's the CoW packet. Now called The Standard at Dinkytown.

17 stories?? Incredible. Too bad there is no grocery store at ground level. Dinkytown really needs another option besides mini target

Yea that target already struggled to keep up with the demand of that area. When I worked there when it first opened you could compare sales stats on your scanner and it was one of the top sellers in the metro of eggs and milk. it's going to be interesting once these few more buildings fill up

I want to like this project but it just seems so poorly thought out from any angle other than maximizing $$$. The parking & loading entrance which is going to leave half a block of the 15th St bike lane unprotected, no retail in an area with very high demand, sticking stairwell, elevator core, and trash along the 15th St frontage instead of literally anything that would activate the sidewalk, that massing...

It's my opinion that a project demolishing 61 units of NOAH should be held to a higher standard than the parking lot infill of the past decade. Unfortunately I don't think the zoning code allows for that sort of nuance. The lack of substantial changes from the first to second CoW submittal is not encouraging.

Yeah, there's a lot I'm not in love with about this project, but that parking access point off of 15th is pretty terrible. If they could figure out a way to remove that, I could probably overlook my other objections.

Given how busy this stretch of bike lanes is during the school year, I think changing that aspect should be a must for the project.

I emailed the City planner for this project with my concerns about the service and parking entrances on 15th and got a response that "Staff shares the same concern and we will be discussing it with the Commission" so hopefully they will push for changes.

The packet on the CoW is now missing, so I didn't review it, but couldn't they theoretically just mirror the plan and have the parking entrances off of 14th? It would at least solve the biggest issue and would cost very little in redesign.

The plan has parking entrances off of both 14th and 15th, one ramping up and one ramping down.

Here's the CPC packet. Still no retail spaces, which seems silly with all the retail space across the street in the Marshall occupied, but the 15th Ave parking entrance was moved to the 6th St side, so that block of 15th will have no curb cuts through the protected bikeway. Still not perfect, but that was the only dealbreaker imo. We'll see if Rainville tries to kill it.

I may actually voice a request for denial for this. According to the 2040 plan, this should be mixed use. It's really disappointing it isn't since I think Dinky is back to about 90-95% retail occupancy. There also isn't a REAL grocery store yet. Could be a great spot for an Aldi.

Although the parking entrance has been moved, the frontage on 15th is going to have Ubers and Amazon drivers parking in those spaces at almost all hours of the day without some sort of dedicated spaces out front. They put the only entrance to the lobby right there for some reason? The 14th frontage is dead as all hell and looks bad. Not a very friendly "eyes on the street" approach.

This is a big building and it's a bad building. Density needs services to succeed, and this building doesn't bring them, increasing the need for car dependency on campus. Deny it.

You're correct about the 2040 plan explictly requiring mixed use on these parcels, but I'm unconvinced that a building with 906 bedrooms but only 154 parking stalls, across the street from a Target, is going to increase campus car dependency, regardless of whether you consider a Target to be a REAL grocery store. Also, the main lobby entrance is pretty clearly on 6th. I'm not saying that Ubers/Amazon won't continually block the bike lane, but nothing's going to stop that except enforcement - they simply don't care about marked loading zones.

This passed on the consent agenda. Rainville didn't even bother to show up.