urbanMSP

The Town Talk Diner's French incarnation is closing Sunday, and will be replaced by new owners:

http://www.startribune.com/historic-tow ... 382114671/

Well, that didn't last long: Now they're closing all stores (Sports Authority, that is): http://www.forbes.com/sites/lauraheller ... a9703d2203

acs: You're on!

railbaronyarr: Thanks for your response. I agree, church exemption from property taxes to the city is bad policy. But how do you get around the First Amendment? (I suppose that's a discussion that doesn't belong on urbanmsp.) amiller92: Thanks for your response. I'm with you on the housing/surface p...

I guess if you like dead plazas, 230 new parking spaces, the loss of office space in our downtown, and the loss of almost $350k in annual property taxes, this is totally the project for you. railbarronyarr, here's how I interpret your comment: (Tax-exempt) institutions such as churches do not belon...

The Nicollet Mall thread is locked, so I'll post this here, a handy set of Pavergate before/after images from James Corner, via MinnPost:

https://www.minnpost.com/politics-polic ... -redesigns

Really great b&w images of downtown Minneapolis in 1960, and their contemporary counterparts, at the Star Tribune:

http://www.startribune.com/gallery-minn ... 5689941/#1

Agreed with Fishmanpet: The Dinkytown Target is terrific, and there's always (free) parking in the adjacent, easy-to-access ramp. The store is larger than the Highland store, and therefore has a wider, more user-friendly inventory. And I've never been there when it hasn't been busy, another great si...

The former Dayton's building, now Macy's, is the subject of this week's Star Tribune Streetscapes:
http://www.startribune.com/streetscapes ... 1830901/#1

I wasn't aware of a tunnel under Park, although there could have been one. I was in the tunnel under Portland in late March, it was used to deliver materials to the presses when the printing plant occupied the basement, first and second floors of the building. I didn't know that it existed until tha...

That precast concrete could not look any more dreary and low-budget. What a disappointment.

The demolition fence is going up around the old Star and Tribune building. The wrecking ball should arrive soon.

Drove past the site today (I'd post a picture, but that's not easy to do on this forum). The usual banners are up on the chain link fence that surrounds the construction site (contractor name, hotel logo, that kind of thing), but none bear an image of the project. That's never a good sign, right? To...

You're right, Wedgeguy: Donaldson's occupied the entire Nicollet Mall front, and the store went all the way back to the City Center atrium, and it occupied the basement and all three above-ground floors. The 7th/Nicollet street entrance opened into the men's casual clothing department, and I'm fairl...

The framework for the 5th Avenue skyway, connecting the Haaf parking ramp with the northern WF twin, went up this weekend.

A medallion from the Star and Tribune building made an appearance this morning when the plastic covering it blew away. It's on the Wells Fargo twin that's a little less further along in the construction process, the one bounded by Portland, Park, 4th and 3rd.

The money-grubbing on this project truly knows no bounds. Despite their ka-jillion dollar publicly funded budget, the Vikings are asking fans to pitch in hundreds of dollars for a tacky commemorative tile to appear, well, they're not saying. Really? (Oh, and they're not allowing the mention of any r...

The sameness of this project, the Xcel office building and the NIc on Fifth, all Opus projects, is not unlike the sameness of the three blocks further south on NIcollet between 8th and 11th (the US Bank Building and the Target buildings, all the work of Ryan) a consequence of having the same develop...

In the dodging-the-bullet department, re City Center:
https://twitter.com/RickNelsonStrib/sta ... 8722246656

An evergreen attached to a girder was being hoisted to the top of the east Wells Fargo tower this morning, around 9:30 a.m.