urbanMSP

Getting those 51k trips/people down two floors to the lower level for a food court will be one of the biggest challenges for this project, I think. People don't even leave the skyway for ground floor retail... The two level atrium will have to be pretty enticing.

Closing confirmed (!!)

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... se-in.html

I am also a fan of a consistent, tight street front along the sidewalk, but our redesign of University does not help this cause. I can see why developers are basically forced to do this. You have a 6 foot sidewalk, maybe with a spindly tree or a lamppost and then two 12 foot travel lanes with not in...

OK - not literally opaque, maybe semi-opaque is better. Either way not good. The street front kitty corner to this at Lawson Commons is so good for new construction, all it took was using normal glass!

Tim Hortons signage went up yesterday. It looks like they are pretty far along in their buildout so I would expect an opening within the month. The choice of glass for the first floor of this is just horrible for street frontage. It's opaque and extremely reflective making it hard to see inside in a...

https://finance-commerce.com/files/2018/04/Snelling-St-Clair-rendering.jpg New rendering and some info for the development at Snelling & St. Clair. *Locked* F&C article: https://finance-commerce.com/2018/04/new-plan-calls-for-rentals-retail-in-mac-groveland/ Do we need/have a separate threa...

Wonder what the likelihood of the City moving the ball on this one is. It is very early on, but that jump from 5+1 stick to 6 stories+ concrete is a big pill to swallow for developers... then again, they did it literally right across the street.

Here's a really similar development that wrapped up last year in Denver: https://denverinfill.com/blog/2017/05/country-club-towers-update-8.html Twin towers going up next to an existing (probably 70/80s-era) tower, also with a "towers" misnomer (Country Club Towers), in a tony part of town...

New renderings in from UP:

Always tough to see a good traditional old commercial building with great street frontage come down right next to a site with a big parking lot and a single story building... I am surprised that a new development can make the numbers work for a furniture store as a tenant... I'm sure their existing ...

Huge fan of the planned infrastructure improvements coming to this intersection. A hotel seems the most logical here as I don't think residential units directly abutting the traffic sewer of this area would be an easy sell. The condos set back on top are icing on the cake. Also glad that this will p...

Anyone know what that massive building at 3rd and 1st in the picture is?

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/890/40141959075_c9916d6dc3_b.jpg Borealis North Loop by Rhett Carlson , on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/792/40141965155_4c5920ee76_b.jpg Borealis North Loop by Rhett Carlson , on Flickr https://farm1.staticflickr.com/784/40141970935_60b9d4e217_b.jpg Borealis ...

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2018/03/21/newest-17-story-downtown-high-rise-will-be-topped.html According to the article, the building will feature a 'Minnesota cabin-inspired' club room and views to the Mississippi. They are also targeting recent college grads making between $45-65k s...

That makes sense. Six stories just seems kind of arbitrary to match neighborhood scale.

From the Strib article: "Our massing will combine a lower element that reflects the scale of the neighborhood with a tower whose vertical punctuation will take that statement skyward." I don't get the whole "scale of the neighborhood" thing that is brought up a lot in recent new ...

Agreed on the LaSalle frontage, definitely wins aesthetically because of (what looks like) brick. All else looks like metal and cement board siding with maybe some brick at street level. What's new. I guess the only small win is the lack of a collage of tacky materials. If you're gonna go cheap, kee...

Did anyone go to the presentation by Ryan at the DMNA meeting on Monday?

I hoping the two buildings by Sherman are tall enough (7+ stories) that they are not stick construction... The KA block would be a great benchmark for density/scale. From the Strib article: "Minneapolis developer Sherman Associates is working on plans to redevelop the southern half of the park...