Brunsfield Place - 915 Washington Avenue N

[PhilmerPhil]

The marketing of some of these luxxxury apartments would make me embarassed to live in them.

[min-chi-cbus]

It's really amazing what $2K/month does NOT get you these days in Minneapolis! I personally don't like that interior at all, and although there may be some sustainable benefit to having the heating vent not hidden behind the walls like that, I find it incredibly gaudy and unattractive!

[Nathan]

industrial modern isn't for everyone. it's clean its simple, I personally hate soffits that muddy the ceiling line to hide them, people with that much money probably don't think of yolo as a joke like a lot of us do... Ha ha

[Konante]

The marketing of some of these luxxxury apartments would make me embarassed to live in them.

Haha, agreed. Has anyone seen or heard anything about the empty retail space on the ground floor?

[Nathan]

Awesome picture per Strib

http://apps.startribune.com/blogs/user_ ... 0(jpg).jpg

[Minnekid]

The picture does not work.

[PhilmerPhil]

try now.

[mattaudio]

They should just replicate this design a few more times around town. I'm loving it.

[Avian]

They could. And we'd have a town full of empty storefronts. Seriously, what's the problem here? It's been over a year.

[Wedgeguy]

The problem is they are a bit ahead of the market. I'm sure the rents are going to be more expensive and other addresses along Washington. But with other higher end stores coming in and continued increase with the number of residences it will get filled soon. Their problem is they are on the farthest edge of the warehouse district so they don't get as much of the foot traffic as say the Docks. But that has to be the best infill development here in the North Loop. IMO that building scream classy urbanism. With the 729 Washington project coming in it will help create more street presences along Washington.

[FISHMANPET]

Honestly, as much as the Twin Cities loves the North Loop, it is, in places, an urbanist nightmare. Transit is bad, the street grid is bad for walking, and even parking feels like a gamble, depending on what's going on at Target Field. It's kind of a crapshoot.

[Wedgeguy]

Honestly, as much as the Twin Cities loves the North Loop, it is, in places, an urbanist nightmare. Transit is bad, the street grid is bad for walking, and even parking feels like a gamble, depending on what's going on at Target Field. It's kind of a crapshoot.

The transit is part of the Met Council and the city's doing. They do need to offer better transit options as the areas population is increasing. 729 will hopefully help with a district parking option for parking. The street grid is what is left of an old industrial area where the blocks were not as conformed as the central business district, it would be nice if developers would work together to make some walkways to help split up some of those long blocks west of 6th. I do think they are working north of the viaduct to make that area as walkable as possible in the future. The area south of the viaduct is a whole different ball of wax.

[EOst]

Probably our best bet for transit improvements in the North Loop is the Broadway streetcar, if/when it happens. It seems pretty likely they'll try to route it on Washington.

[nickmgray]

That picture looks nice. A little photoshop tweaking and it would look like a rendering.

I'm not surprised that the store fronts are still empty. I think the best option to fill most of the space is for a restaurant to move in. I'd love to see a boutique furniture store or something similar as well. There should be enough high-end apartment and condos in the area to sustain a shop like that.

While most new development in the area has been residential, I think we need one or two large office buildings to go in to draw daytime traffic into the neighborhood. Having more people in and out of the neighborhood on a daily basis will help fill empty store fronts like these and force the city to think differently about the transit situation.

[twincitizen]

I was going to type up something in the "North Loop Neighborhood" thread regarding transit, which I too have been a regular critic.

Really though, just a small bump in frequency to the 14 would end that criticism. A large chunk of the neighborhood is quite walkable to Target Field Station, if LRT is what you need. For the part of the neighborhood that isn't walkable to TFS, say above 7th Ave and east of Washington, they do have the 14 (on Washington) and 7 (on 1st St N) to choose from. The 7 is so infrequent it can basically be ignored as nothing more than baseline service for the transit-dependent. The 14 does in fact run on 15-minute headways during peak, 20-minutes midday, and 30 minutes in the early morning & late evening. If that could be bumped to 12-minutes peak, 15-minutes just outside of peak, and 20-minutes for most of the rest of the day, no one would ever complain about the transit service to the "north Washington" area. It whisks you from Brunsfield to 6th & Nicollet in 9 minutes flat. That isn't bad at all.

[mullen]

the re-do of wash ave through north loop tried to keep an industrial look and i think that was misstep. so they added some trees a few years later. still feels pretty barren to walk these sidwalks. the street is so wide here still.

north loop still has some room to grow with spare parcels.

i saw a resturant will be going into the street level space of latitude 45. in time this brunsfield space will lease. it's a really nice buildng, imo.

[mattaudio]

The Metro Transit SIP included 14 improvements in the second phase, with 15 minute all day frequency on the "trunk" between 38th/Bloomington and North Commons - so that would include the North Loop section. I'd like to see this improvement accelerated to 2015.

[tab]

Question for the architects on the forum: does the first floor of the Brunsfield Place look tall enough to legally accommodate a mezzanine level? If so, that might be a way to make the space more attractive for office or office/retail uses.

[seanrichardryan]

It is tall enough for a mezzanine. Notice the windows on the right in the above posted link.

[Architorture]

The mez simply needs the head clearance to be allowed for height. The floor area of the mez depends on the type of construction and fire ratings, Concrete = the mez can be the size of half of the open space below. Wood = the mez can be 1/3 of the open space below.