urbanMSP

Oh my. I've always been puzzled by how many employees banks seem to have. How many people do you need to move money pixels around on a screen?

That said, that's a helluva lead. Banks like towers.

This development may be a "downtown campus", which sounds a hell of a lot like something that Best Buy or UnitedHealth Group built in the suburbs. I'd be more optimistic if Wells only had a block, and not 2 or 4 blocks. It's too soon to tell what exactly is at stake here...

A new Wells Fargo campus?
http://www.startribune.com/business/183450161.html
and I recuse myself from further discussion on this tangent.

"One scenario apparently involves building a campus for Wells Fargo, a park, and perhaps residential housing".

Fingers crossed!!

I'll take the park...

I wonder now that when 50 years go by if downtown will be multi-tiered like Chicago or NY due to the proximity of the two major transit areas in the city -- about a mile away from one-another (The Interchange and the Metrodome Station).

Probably over a million square feet of office. I'm getting excited.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/p ... 2012-12-14

It's a good bet that all surface parking in the area from 5th to 11th Av, and from 3rd to 6th St will be gone by 2016.

It's official, with this news and it being Friday, I'm not going to get anything done at work today. Fantasy land...

It's official, with this news and it being Friday, I'm not going to get anything done at work today. Fantasy land...

Agreed! I need to calm down. This is exciting, and very unexpected even though I had heard of their space search. I just assumed it would go to a suburb, or something else boring. Since we UrbanMSPers seem to be getting most of our wishes lately, I'm really pulling for the Hines building by Target FIeld, the LaSalle apartments and this new Wells Fargo campus to bookend our existing skyline on three sides. Combined, and deeply in optimistic speculation land, this could really change our skyline from all angles.

This certainly is exciting. 1 million square feet for Wells Fargo would be significantly sized, even if it is spread out over all four blocks, which I have a hunch is not plan A. As a point of comparison, IDS has 1.4 million square feet of office and retail on one block of the same dimensions. So, if it were spread out over four blocks, that would be like, four 10-15 story buildings? That's *if* Wells Fargo gets all four blocks...

...Bone Marrow listed as a potential client, as well....as is TCF.

I think the perfect spot for a park would be the northwestern block, the "5th and 5th" corner. Could provide for a dramatic walk-up to a redeveloped Armory on game days...

We'll have a lot to smile about at the HH next tuesday.

According to this Minnpost Article Two full blocks might become parks... (implying bye bye Strib building... ) but that implies the 1mil square feet could be on two blocks including a lot of parking and retail and some residential...

Personally I'd prefer to see partial blocks of park, like two half blocks, and more residential...

Agreed about the parks. I'd rather see smaller parks that come together to create some sort of linear connection from north to south. But it seems like the Vikings are really driving a lot of this.

If we had a full block park for this neighborhood, my first choice would be the Thrivent surface parking block south of the Armory. My second choice would be the Strib surface parking block north of the Armory. Either way, this would tie in real well with reuse of the Armory as a year-round public market. I think the main advantage of the Thrivent parking block would be there are so many parking lots surrounding it (the Thrivent half lot behind their building, the lot next to the Sexton, the parking near Lehmans, and the HCMC surface lot).... it could be a great little park surrounded by low/mid-rise mixed use.

According to this Minnpost Article Two full blocks might become parks... (implying bye bye Strib building... ) but that implies the 1mil square feet could be on two blocks including a lot of parking and retail and some residential...

Personally I'd prefer to see partial blocks of park, like two half blocks, and more residential...

If something like that happens, at the very least the large stone entry portion of the Strib Building (with the name on it) HAS to be saved. Even if that means moving it. I would honestly love to have a few of us start figuring out how to get that historically protected in some capacity. Don't get me wrong- I'm very psyched about this development- I just don't want this city to lose (yet another) important architectural tie to its history.

From that post, it sounds like Wells has 1.5 million sq feet of office space leased total in the twin cities. Is that correct? Seems low. In that case they would only be talking about like 300k of office space for this. Either way, this will be great. Though, I can already hear people complaining on here if a building over 20 stories isn't announced. If this does happen, I wouldn't expect a lot of height...but I would certainly be very happy if someting tall is proposed:)

I would far prefer closing 5th street through this section and landscaping it heavily than to have two full block parks. The current county uses (Jail, huge parking ramps, Judicial Offices etc.) facing these game-day plazas, *oops, I mean 'parks', aren't going to change, nor add any vitality to such a huge swath of downtown. A half block park facing the armory and a redeveloped Strib building with a tower on the back will be a better use of land.

Agreed. They could expand the ROW maybe another 30-80 feet on the north side of 5th, but two full block parks would just bee too much. But of course turning a concrete street into a pleasantly wide/green street is doesn't have the same "value-add" as a gameday plaza.

I would far prefer closing 5th street through this section and landscaping it heavily than to have two full block parks. The current county uses (Jail, huge parking ramps, Judicial Offices etc.) facing these game-day plazas, *oops, I mean 'parks', aren't going to change, nor add any vitality to such a huge swath of downtown. A half block park facing the armory and a redeveloped Strib building with a tower on the back will be a better use of land.

100% agree.

Agreed about the parks. I'd rather see smaller parks that come together to create some sort of linear connection from north to south. But it seems like the Vikings are really driving a lot of this.

If we had a full block park for this neighborhood, my first choice would be the Thrivent surface parking block south of the Armory. My second choice would be the Strib surface parking block north of the Armory. Either way, this would tie in real well with reuse of the Armory as a year-round public market. I think the main advantage of the Thrivent parking block would be there are so many parking lots surrounding it (the Thrivent half lot behind their building, the lot next to the Sexton, the parking near Lehmans, and the HCMC surface lot).... it could be a great little park surrounded by low/mid-rise mixed use.

If there were to be two full block parks in DTE it would be cool if one was north and one was south of the Armory...

what's with the negative tone of that minnpost column. i guess i shouldn't be surprised. somehow minneapolis is different than all these suburbs using incentives to get large office users to locate/relocate. look at what emerson is doing with the former ADC facility in Shakopee. west publishing in eagan, medtronic in fridley. what's the incentive for pinnacle for relocate their hq here? it's a lot of state dollars.

the stadium fight was over months ago dude, move on.

From that post, it sounds like Wells has 1.5 million sq feet of office space leased total in the twin cities. Is that correct? Seems low. In that case they would only be talking about like 300k of office space for this. Either way, this will be great. Though, I can already hear people complaining on here if a building over 20 stories isn't announced. If this does happen, I wouldn't expect a lot of height...but I would certainly be very happy if someting tall is proposed:)

In the article it clearly states they are looking for, at the least....a million square feet. My fantasy is a 1.2 million office building probably 700-800 feet; residential 30+ floors...the park and retail.

I would hope the Hines project is better than 20 floors. The rendering suggests 26.

EDIT. I think this is the kind of project that will get improved during the initial drawings.

I can't really see anything tall being built here. If they wanted to build something tall it seems to me they'd be looking somewhere else (like the Ritz Block).

I hope the Hines building is more than 20, too. I think it's a spectacular design, and I really like its interaction at the ground level.

As for the WF project, I think it's a nice reassurance that Minneapolis will remain a major national banking hub. Yes, we have TCF, US Bank, Wells Fargo, ING and many others, but all have major presences elsewhere and I feared after the banking crisis that our city would decline in relative importance in banking.