urbanMSP

What does this mean for some other County owned buildings? For example the Family Justice Center sits on a lot that is over half the size of the block. That would a nice property to get back on the tax rolls....

I doubt the FJC would move in the near future. Even though it's a Hennepin County building most of the workers are State employees so they pay a significant portion to building costs.

Following up on this aspect of the conversation, since it was not clarified here on the forum. This was at the end of a Biz Journal article:

Hennepin County anticipates that moving employees to the Thrivent building will reduce capital expenses at some of the 129 Hennepin County properties and reduce lease payments in buildings it doesn’t own.

Hennepin County wants to move its Family Justice Center into the Thrivent building, which would in turn allow it to sell the old federal courthouse building at 110 Fourth Street S.

I split off the discussion of the new headquarters building to its own thread.

Fantasy time: now that Hennepin County has a whole new office tower's worth of space, what if they brought some of their traffic engineers downtown so they actually had a chance to use some of the city streets they design for us?

Apartment project next to Thrivent advances
http://finance-commerce.com/2017/12/apa ... -advances/
*LOCKED*


Thrivent Financial and 625 Developers are moving forward with an eight-story, 107-unit apartment building that will wrap around a 773-stall, multistory parking deck. The parking structure will be sandwiched between the apartments and the 17-story Thrivent building at 625 Fourth Ave. S.

Wonder if Henn Co would consider painting the big blank concrete wall a maroon/red to mach the general tone of the rest of the building. Might help if we're going to continue to look at it for years to come.

Or an LED display

We're most likely to get a giant "H." I mean they already have a building the shape of an H

That would be awful. I was thinking of something considerably more enchanting.

Pretty good place for a 200' Prince mural.

Put a giant mirror on it so that US Bank Stadium can admire itself all day.

Wonder if Henn Co would consider painting the big blank concrete wall a maroon/red to mach the general tone of the rest of the building. Might help if we're going to continue to look at it for years to come.

I haven't been down there in while to confirm, but my recollection (and the images seem to confirm) is that this is granite, not concrete.

So it was a more expensive eyesore?

I hope the Thrivent ramp is built so that it could support residential/office above it in the future.

That would be awful. I was thinking of something considerably more enchanting.

Would it be horrible for me to suggest that we draft "95 Urbanist Theses" and affix them to the scaffolding?

Mpls is gonna take an L on this one. That said...

1. At least it's wrapped, the whole way around, at 6-7 stories.
2. I think the design of the apartment portion is pretty decent, actually.
3. This is a great excuse to tear up other nearby lots and demolish other nearby parking structures.

Would really love for the city to learn from this and tweak the zoning so they have more leverage on these developments w/ regard to parking. California is literally on fire, and developers are building 700+ space parking ramps in the core of the city. Really not acceptable.

I'm a little confused on the focus of ire on this one. This isn't the only structure that's gone up in/near downtown that's around this size. The Edition on the west side of the new park, basically all the stuff in the Mill District and many of the North Loop buildings, etc. I think it's maybe a shame, but also developers have the right to build less than what armchair folks like us think the market can bear, and as alexschief says, the design elements to the public realm all seem to hit high notes here.

I don't ascribe to the idea that zoning codes that limit density in high-demand areas are good because they'll spread development elsewhere where it might otherwise have just been hyper-concentrated.... but: In this case is it so bad that we didn't get a tower of office or residential? There's plenty going on in the immediate neighborhood, and plenty of opportunity for good stuff to slowly replace aging building stock or surface lots on the periphery of downtown, too.

It's immediately adjacent to much taller buildings/the core, so it's much more bothersome than something like The Edition or most sites in the Mill District.

Apartment project next to Thrivent advances
http://finance-commerce.com/2017/12/apa ... -advances/
*LOCKED*


Thrivent Financial and 625 Developers are moving forward with an eight-story, 107-unit apartment building that will wrap around a 773-stall, multistory parking deck. The parking structure will be sandwiched between the apartments and the 17-story Thrivent building at 625 Fourth Ave. S.

Looks like a white picket fence around a glass castle.

Looks like the purchase of the old Thrivent building is already starting to pay for itself. Hennepin County canceled a $11 million project which had bids of $18 million for a new Courts facility in Bloomington. Instead they're directing residents Downtown given that the Courthouse will have more capacity with the Thrivent acquisition.

[urlhttp://www.startribune.com/hennepin-county-scr ... 463778133/][/url]

How feasible and likely is it that Hennepin County is able to consolidate the Juvenile Court buildings on 5th and Park? The land they're sitting on with the building and adjacent parking lot is now perfect for residential development overlooking The Commons.

Along with the Family Court building, the County could make back a lot of their investment in the Thrivent Building by selling a few under-utilized buildings and land downtown.

How feasible and likely is it that Hennepin County is able to consolidate the Juvenile Court buildings on 5th and Park? The land they're sitting on with the building and adjacent parking lot is now perfect for residential development overlooking The Commons.

Along with the Family Court building, the County could make back a lot of their investment in the Thrivent Building by selling a few under-utilized buildings and land downtown.

I could see them fitting the half-block nearer to The Commons. However, the larger building on the other half of the block housing Child Protection services I suspect would be more difficult to integrate. However, if they could perhaps the building could be repurposed and integrated into the development of the rest of the block?

I really hope the sell the Family Court building soon, it'll be great to see that developed along with the other half of the Opus block.