urbanMSP

I prefer to hope that such an influx of people will create more demand for development (with more retail in the area and be a good boost for the businesses that do exist in the area... surprisingly Loring doesn't have that much retail in general for being such a dense residential neighborhood.

The City owned 'meter farm' site at 1501 has been out for RFP before. There was a Clare housing/ MN Aids project IIRC. What ever happened to that?

Getting off topic here... I've always wished Aldi would come in and take a spot in that Family Dollar, Ace Hardware building. But with one going in at Rex 26, that's unlikely.

This is such a stupid development. In addition to the other 5 story apartment across the street there's going to be a lot more residents with a lot less to walk to.

A lot less? There won't be a corner grocery and coffee shop, and some storefronts that have mostly been empty through the years. Meanwhile, the next block is a row of places to eat and a barber.

There's already zero walkability north and south of 15th on the east side: south of Pings and the Theatre there are parking lots and a DVD editing business in a little boxy windowless building. Then you get the highway, then an empty lot.

Hopefully having more people around will encourage development of these spots too (There has been one or more proposals for the meter farm. I think Goodman kiboshed them, or so I heard).

Then you get the highway, then an empty lot.

If someone were to build on those two lots that would be a bit less of a barren connection to the rest of the stuff on Nicollet in Stevens Square. Crossing the freeway wouldn't be so bad if there was something immediately at the end of it.

True, but that's a big "if". I haven't seen anything proposed there since I moved here 6 years ago.

So in regards to the barren highway crossings, I live in Columbus OH currently and I know that most self proclaimed urbanists have heard of the High Street freeway cap, but there are also smaller scale parklet type "caps" (more like extended sidewalk with grass and wall) that makes the crossings much more enjoyable. The Long Street/Spring Street bridges are great and obviously less costly than the full building approach. All seen below.

Because I could only attach three... here's one more of the wall side.

Isn’t MNDOT investigating highway cap/bridge widening improvements along 94 still? Anyone know the progress on that?

OK, I know there's a picture showing people using that green space, but... nobody ever uses that green space, right? Seems like really expensive unnecessary infrastructure that could have been better used making a much nicer, more functional green space somewhere else.

Unless you've got the money to do a full cap between bridges (like a First Avenue to LaSalle type situation), it seems like your best bet is just to make the bridge wide enough for nice sidewalks and call it a day.

Yeah, a perfect fantasy world involves a cap from Lasalle to 1st at least, and maybe all the way to 3rd, creating actual usable real estate. I tiny bit of linear park seems like it would make walking across more pleasant but that's about it.

I think I agree on the green space side, but the other side seems to extend less, and the infrastructure there seems much more useful for pedestrians. Civil engineers have a much different idea of what a nice sidewalk is in the context of crossing a freeway, and as much love as I have for the folks involved with pedestrian planning and programming at county and state DOT levels, there's only so much they've been able to do on a project-by-project basis. We have seen bridges completely re-decked recently in MN with not much in the way of pedestrian amenities. Selling designs like this requires shooting a little high to land at a reasonable end.

Unless you've got the money to do a full cap between bridges (like a First Avenue to LaSalle type situation), it seems like your best bet is just to make the bridge wide enough for nice sidewalks and call it a day.

I think if the desire is to encourage walking across these awful border conditions, these are more likely to encourage the desired cross neighborhood connections than a sidewalk with chainlink fence. It accomplishes parts of what a full cap does but at a likely much lower cost.

I was just saying that I think this exists as a nice middle ground between full cap and loud windy sidewalk.

So let's say the developer wanted to start construction on 1500 Nickolet, could they even start digging this late into the winte?, or would they have to wait until spring?


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So let's say the developer wanted to start construction on 1500 Nickolet, could they even start digging this late into the winte?, or would they have to wait until spring?


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Yes, it is possible. Surprisingly easy. For example, the excavation for the 128 2nd St N site in the North Loop was basically completed in the last two weeks.

Any thoughts on when the developer wants to break ground on this? The fences have been up for a month or so. The convenience store at the corner of 15th and Nickolet is gone. Not sure of everything else has been moved out of that building, or if there even was anything else in there.


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A construction trailer is now on site. Looks like this is getting close to breaking ground ...

Thanks for the update. I actually was on the bus yesterday riding past the site and saw two men wearing green construction uniforms.


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They were closing down part of 15th next to the site today, seems they were just waiting for the Superbowl to be over and now they're ready to go.

As dumb as the whole "can't have too much visible construction DT where the rich people might have to look at it" thing was, it's going to be kinda cool to watch the surge of activity now.

As I biked in I noticed a tower crane was operating again next to the stadium. As I was thinking about that a large crane drove past me on Washington followed by two semis with parts. All I could think was, "Minneapolis is open again."