urbanMSP

Cancer Survivors Park is too far north on the mall to get enough traffic to become a lively plaza. I don't think its the stairs that deter people, rather the half mile or so disconnection between its self and the CBD, and the expanse of surface parking lots that surround it.

In the Spring and Summer I walk a short 3 blocks to C.S.P. from my office in the Wells Fargo Center. I do not understand why people think this is too far for use by people from the CBD? If CSP is too far than what about the new DTE Park? Is that too far?

I think Cancer Survivors Park is a good location for all the residential units going up. We also have Government Plaza (north and south), Canadian Pacific Plaza, Gateway Park, the plaza in front of the Federal Courthouse, the plaza in front of that building on 3rd between 7th and 8th, the aforementioned Pillsbury Center Plaza, and of course, the river and associated parks themselves.

I think there are plenty of open spaces that we simply need to make more inviting by adding seating, vendors, etc. We also need to forge a relationship between the public and private actors to make these places more open to the public.

I've seen a tennis match on the plaza at the corner of South 5th Street and 2nd Ave South. Goodness knows it might have been the best use it had I can remember.

Cancer Survivors Park is too far north on the mall to get enough traffic to become a lively plaza. I don't think its the stairs that deter people, rather the half mile or so disconnection between its self and the CBD, and the expanse of surface parking lots that surround it.

In the Spring and Summer I walk a short 3 blocks to C.S.P. from my office in the Wells Fargo Center. I do not understand why people think this is too far for use by people from the CBD? If CSP is too far than what about the new DTE Park? Is that too far?

In my opinion, yes, the distance of the DTE park from the core will hinder it from getting the same amount of visitors as it would if it were in a more central location. IM NOT SAYING that I personally think it is a far walk to either CSP or DTE in the grand scheme of things. Obviously its not. But its just not the same of having a green-space in the heart of the CBD, its just not. Crystal Court/ the fugly government plaza will have to serve as our defacto greenspace for now.

I agree that Government Plaza doesn't do a good job of being green space (not that it's fugly), but there's a little more than a block of green space on the other side of the tower. No one ever seems to remember its there, but I think it's quite nice.

You know, it's kinda crazy that Opus paid $7.5 million for this site in 1986 and today it's worth...$7.6 million. Econ, right?

Did they buy the site with the hotel, or after it had been leveled and converted to a parking lot?

Edit: nevermind, the hotel was demolished in 90/91, so yes, with the hotel.

Ah I guess that makes sense then, thanks.

though, including the cost of demolition, property taxes, and parking revenue, I wonder if they are still in the red on the lot.

though, including the cost of demolition, property taxes, and parking revenue, I wonder if they are still in the red on the lot.

I'm sure that Opus has cash cowed that property for some good cash flow over the years with parking fees, rental for Rib fest and event's like that. Opus has not lost a dime on this property. It's value has stayed the at the price they paid because they bought it when the economy was up and land value in the city were up. When Target move development to the south end of the mall the land values to the south rose, while the isolated north just kind of stay the same or dropped some. Now with the development of the Mill district and north loop, the north end of the mall is now looking like a good area to invest and to build. With Nic, Marq 4, and Excel moving to fill the block to the south it make redeveloping this block much more plausible.

Nick, would it be possible to set up a filter to automagically change "Excel" to "Xcel"?

What if someone wants to talk about spreadsheets?

That's a good point, so I did a search and went through it. Not including quotes, "Excel" has been used 39 times on the forum. Of those, 7 were referring to the spreadsheet program (mostly in the context of the overly-complicated vote-counting procedure), and 1 was actually using it as a verb. The other 31 instances were misspellings of "Xcel". Even if it just replaces some misspellings with others, the error frequency will drop.

I personally love using Excel to track so many things in life.

Edit: If this comment wasn't clearly trolling, it would be the most spammy comment on the forum.

I personally love using Excel to track so many things in life.

Edit: If this comment wasn't clearly trolling, it would be the most spammy comment on the forum.

it seems like plenty of people excel at trolling around here...

I personally love using Excel to track so many things in life.

Edit: If this comment wasn't clearly trolling, it would be the most spammy comment on the forum.

it seems like plenty of people excel at trolling around here...

Yes, as a group we don't excel centering the conversation on the issues at hand. We should target fielding the questions asked so at least we're in the ballpark.

Bingo! (I tried)

puns! FTW!

Adam Voge at Finance and Commerce tweeted a couple shots of the proposed renderings from Opus.

http://ow.ly/i/5AdfB

http://ow.ly/i/5AdgQ

Thanks Uptowner. This is pure speculation, but with 500 thousand square feet of office space, I'm thinking there must be some major tenant in mind. Also, it would be interesting to learn what Opus is intending for the Nicollet Mall side. Hopefully some significant retail and not just throwing in another token restaurant.