The Hub Minneapolis - 600 Washington Ave SE (284' - 26 Stories)

Northeast, Near North, Camden, Old St. Anthony, University and surrounding neighborhoods
amiller92
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby amiller92 » May 28th, 2015, 8:38 am

A small correction: zoning doesn't allow a building this dense here any more than it does in any other part of the city. This building will need a lot of variances to go through. It will be helped by its proximity to LRT and that's about it, zoning-wise.
The notion that zoning would be an obstacle here, of all places, is a good demonstration of what's wrong with zoning.

amiller92
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby amiller92 » May 28th, 2015, 8:41 am

Give him a check with enough zeros and he'll be happy to sell out. The Big 10 business will survive and can easily come back. And honestly? As a graduate and now employee of the U, I don't think Big 10 is all that great. It's usually pretty dead, except on game days.
And its creaky old building is one of the reasons I don't usually patronize it when I am over there, game day or otherwise.

RailBaronYarr
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby RailBaronYarr » May 28th, 2015, 10:03 am

Maybe things are different now, but a restaurant/bar doesn't stay open for decades if it's usually empty or has not-great food (the latter could be argued, for sure). I used to do Thursday night trivia at Big 10 (3x champions - got ourselves a mid-sized High Life fridge, Miller Lite neon sign, and meat smoker!) and it was always packed. The subs are pretty good, certainly better than any chain in the Dinkytown/SV area. I dunno. I'd definitely be sad to see it go if it does. I do think the folks out there (and they are, based on my facebook feed) who can't fathom a place like this in new digs being cool anymore are wrong. After 5-10 years it'll feel like a worn glove and all will be okay.

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FISHMANPET
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby FISHMANPET » May 28th, 2015, 10:20 am

It's packed to the gills on game day, though mostly with older (50 and up) people. It does a pretty good lunch business. After work happy hour picks up a few people. But outside of trivia it's just dead at night The food isn't bad, it just doesn't jump out at me as being spectacular (excluding the subs, those have a charm all their own).

MNdible
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby MNdible » May 28th, 2015, 10:29 am

Oh, yeah. I love Big 10 subs, and I love the creaky old booths.

Presumably since they don't own the building, they've been paying something pretty close to market rent at their current location. I'd imagine the new owners would love to have a couple of established businesses like Village Wok and Big 10 ready to reopen in the new building. But as I said, don't be surprised if you don't get much more than that. It just doesn't make sense for a landlord to subdivide up their leasable space any more than they have to.

min-chi-cbus
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby min-chi-cbus » May 28th, 2015, 11:35 am

I've been a lurker here since this place was Minnescraper, and I usually have nothing to say, but since I've lived in this area as a student and currently work on East Bank I do want to give my 2 cents on this project.

I'm not against this development at all, but I am concerned about losing some unique storefronts that are not really possible to replicate with new construction. Obviously no one will miss FedEx or the empty space where Jamba Juice used to be, and Big 10 is not a particularly popular restaurant (as far as I can tell), but Village Wok, Abdul's, Bun Mi, and Espresso Expose are all very popular and I'm not sure how many of them will be able to come back like Sally's did down the street. I'm not overly familiar with the economics behind retail in new developments, but as far as I can tell it's atypical to have affordable, independent restaurants and stores in brand new, high-end buildings. I hope I don't sound too much like a NiMBY, but if I do then at least you know the potential arguments NiMBY's might bring up.

Would it be at all possible to build this without demolishing the Washington Ave storefronts? It might make more sense to have the front of the building be on Harvard anyway, since cars can't drive down Washington anymore (which also makes the parking podium seem like a strange choice to me).
I hear you. A friend of my friend owns and operates Bun Mi, so I personally have an interest in seeing them succeed however possible. It would be very ideal if the developer could somehow incorporate the original building into the new development -- which would maximize their efforts to achieve street-level walkability/vibrancy and attract/retain tenants. But doing so DURING construction is a whole 'nother story......I don't know how that could possibly be accomplished, whether or not the existing building was incorporated into the design.

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FISHMANPET
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby FISHMANPET » May 28th, 2015, 11:40 am

It just doesn't make sense for a landlord to subdivide up their leasable space any more than they have to.
I wonder if there's some way this can be encouraged through zoning or some other tool?

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FISHMANPET
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby FISHMANPET » May 28th, 2015, 1:47 pm

So dug into parking for the hell of it. In the Stadium Village Pedestrian Overlay (PO) District, non-residential uses are not required to provide parking. So the only requirement is a half space per bedroom, via the University Area Overlay District. It should also be eligible for the current transit incentives for parking, which allow a reduction of 10%, so .45 space per bedroom. Also, bicycle parking is required, one space per bedroom.

However, 700 Washington, next door, succesfully got a variance down to .31 space per unit.

Dinkytown is the same, except the minimums are 70% of what they would otherwise be in the University Area Overlay District, or .35 space per bedroom.

Also the transit incentives for parking are probably changing later in the summer. They'll allow more reduction in parking, but they specifically don't apply to the University district, so depending on when plans are submitted the old regulations may or may not apply.

And I was staring at this corner out of the window at a meeting today, and I figure anything built would probably be around 4.5x as tall as 700 Washington next door, which is 79 feet tall, so ~350 feet. As best as I can tell, Moos Tower is 262 to 295 feet tall, so this would be 90 to 55 feet taller than Moos, in theory.

E: Ugh, 700 washington isn't the building next door, gotta remember what that's called and see what they did for parking, brb...

E2: OK, so 630 Washington actually got the same parking variance, from 88 to 49. And this building actually 73 feet not 79 feet like the Sally's building, but I'll call that within the margin of error for my very rough guess...

go4guy
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby go4guy » May 28th, 2015, 2:21 pm

I would assume that the greater height from the office floors will be offset by the lower height of the parking podium?

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FISHMANPET
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby FISHMANPET » May 28th, 2015, 2:39 pm

I kinda made the assumption that the height of the retail floor would be about the same as the height of an office floor, so I'm guestimating 4.5x the height of retail plus 4.5x the height of 5 stories of residential. Looking at the tower downtown with parking podium makes me think that a floor of parking is about the same height as a floor of residential.

Wedgeguy
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby Wedgeguy » May 28th, 2015, 5:36 pm

If I'm remember right, this would be across the street from the Moos Tower which is how many feet tall with how many floors. So there is already height in the area including the other hospital building that line Harvard that have decent height. The area around this spot has pretty much turned into University buildings of varying height south of Washington. The new buildings that are being built along Essex are not SFH in any shape or form. So a tower here would not be out of place other than the change in the street dynamics.

TroyGBiv
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby TroyGBiv » May 28th, 2015, 8:36 pm

I think Moos is 19 stories

IntrepidEmu
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby IntrepidEmu » May 28th, 2015, 8:36 pm

I hear you. A friend of my friend owns and operates Bun Mi, so I personally have an interest in seeing them succeed however possible. It would be very ideal if the developer could somehow incorporate the original building into the new development -- which would maximize their efforts to achieve street-level walkability/vibrancy and attract/retain tenants. But doing so DURING construction is a whole 'nother story......I don't know how that could possibly be accomplished, whether or not the existing building was incorporated into the design.
Yeah, that was another thought I had; if they did manage to preserve the existing building, there's no way they could keep the businesses open during construction. And honestly Bun Mi is the main reason I'm invested as well. That place is amazing and I eat there at least once a week, I'd hate to see it go.

I'm kind of surprised that they're looking at tearing down this building before getting rid of the strip mall at the end of Washington. I kinda figured there'd be redevelopment of some smaller buildings on Washington, but that strip mall is so out of place and the stores seem to rotate in and out of there so regularly. Seems more ideal for redevelopment to me.

grant1simons2
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby grant1simons2 » May 28th, 2015, 8:40 pm

I think Moos is 19 stories
And 295'

go4guy
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby go4guy » May 29th, 2015, 6:41 am

IntrepidEmu,

The strip mall is absolutely terrible, but the location isn't nearly as good as the proposed location. This location is about as prime as they get in all of the university area. That is probably why they are able to go so high. The strip mall site is probably destined for 6 story wood frame.

amiller92
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby amiller92 » May 29th, 2015, 11:27 am

I'm kind of surprised that they're looking at tearing down this building before getting rid of the strip mall at the end of Washington. I kinda figured there'd be redevelopment of some smaller buildings on Washington, but that strip mall is so out of place and the stores seem to rotate in and out of there so regularly. Seems more ideal for redevelopment to me.
My memory says that mall only dates to 1998 or 1999. That would be a pretty short life.

Mikey
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby Mikey » May 30th, 2015, 12:14 am

I'm kind of surprised that they're looking at tearing down this building before getting rid of the strip mall at the end of Washington. I kinda figured there'd be redevelopment of some smaller buildings on Washington, but that strip mall is so out of place and the stores seem to rotate in and out of there so regularly. Seems more ideal for redevelopment to me.
My memory says that mall only dates to 1998 or 1999. That would be a pretty short life.
It was there when I got there in 1998, but it was very new looking. I'd say 1996 - 97 ish
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Mikey
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby Mikey » May 30th, 2015, 12:18 am

SV historic district: Just the Sterb's building.
One more - the three story block kiddie corner from Sterb's. But that's it. Everything from Oak to Huron (except S&H) can go
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contrast
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby contrast » May 31st, 2015, 9:37 pm

SV historic district: Just the Sterb's building.
One more - the three story block kiddie corner from Sterb's. But that's it. Everything from Oak to Huron (except S&H) can go
Buildings north of Stub and Herbs on Oak can all go too. Redevelopment will continue in this area. Per Big 10 etc, people are nostalgic about the restaurants, not the buildings. These are not nice buildings. ADA any one? Yes, I hope the restaurants can stay in the area, if they can't return to the new development, but the buildings served their purpose for 100 yrs and now it is time for something better. An upgrade at this location is a very good thing.

TroyGBiv
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Re: Stadium Village Tower

Postby TroyGBiv » June 3rd, 2015, 9:00 pm

With the density of the campus and now the surrounding neighborhoods as well... I think up is the right way to continue to build up access and residents in the campus area. I am not too worried about the buildings being torn down. I wish more of the older structures could be saved but I think we need to make the most of the Green line access points.


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