urbanMSP

This is going to have a lovely view to the northwest, until the adjacent property redevelops: http://goo.gl/maps/RIWGW

It certainly explains why there are no units on the first floor on that end of the building.

Beyond that "Tubs" building in the Street View link above, is Metro Transit's employee parking lot. The upper/main lot gets quite full, and many employees do park in that lower lot, cordially known as the "rape lot". While I think it is totally justifiable that bus drivers should have the opportunity (or necessity) to drive to work, the same cannot be said of the office workers, with their free Metropasses and more normal work hours. As the neighborhood develops, I think the City should put pressure on Metro Transit to sell that lot to allow for another phase of Junction Flats, if you will. If they started charging Metro Transit employees for parking, that 2nd lot would empty out real quick (and the bus system would probably improve due to all of the employees now taking transit and noticing/fixing deficiencies in their departments, ha!)

Broke ground today on Junction Flats. http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... round.html

More renderings on this one - love the fancy party their having on that last page.

http://the2020partners.com/wordpress/wp ... 052113.pdf

Those look pretty great. It seems they are going to be using some high quality materials, in a more consistent manor, and do a good job of hiding the HVAC units.

My favorite is the listless woman in the evening gown...

From the pdf pics, apparently no minorities will be living there. Just white people with questionable tastes in fashion.

Didn't realize this was a Doran project. He's really got some of the slickest stuff in city lately.


IMG_3523 by UrbanMSP, on Flickr

Doran is the builder, not the owner/developer (on this one).

If Holiday continues to operate the car wash dryers with the doors open, that is going to be quite the nuisance. It was so loud that it drowned out any bus noise, as observed from 5th Street. I'm not kidding, this car wash dryer is easily the loudest thing in the area. If I was living here, I'd want to be as far north/west as possible, away from the Holiday gas station. A gas station would be a terrible neighbor in general.

Maybe the developer should foot the bill and offer a door for their car wash. He should think of it as an investment for his project. I don't feel as though Holiday should have to pay for this, since this area was little more than a barren wasteland not too long ago and there was nobody around to complain about car wash noise.

I would think it has a door, but the dryers are at the end, and as it's pushing the car out, it's drying it, the doors have to be open. It dries the back half of the car as the front half is exiting...

Right. That is how 99% of gas station car washes operate. However, there is such a thing as a fully enclosed car wash, which dries the cars with the exit door closed. I attended a St. Louis Park planning commission meeting where this was required for a proposed car wash at Excelsior & France, due the proximity of existing neighbors.

min-chi-cbus is right that it is not Holiday's problem *now*, as they were allowed to build it as is. I'll point out that the gas station is barely 3 years old and the City knew damn well this area was going to develop when they approved that gas station. The City very easily could and should have required a fully enclosed car wash and/or restricted the hours of use (SLP did that too). I can see how at the time (2008-09) when it was approved, it was a little harder to envision the area being this residential, but then again, the ballpark was nearing completion...it's not like nothing was gonna get built next door (and across) from Holiday.

The whole first floor of this was pretty much up this morning

The drawing at the IDS was a good looker, hope what is build look as good or better.

IMG_4484 by UrbanMSP, on Flickr


IMG_4488 by UrbanMSP, on Flickr

4 1/2 stories of stick completed so far. Still have half a floor on the west end of the top floor. This is coming along nicely. If they can complete in the spring when the Interchange is finished that will make for great timing. There will still be plenty of construction going on in the area thru the end of next year.

P1260029 by UrbanMSP, on Flickr


P1260031 by UrbanMSP, on Flickr

Junction Flats Minneapolis north loop 3-13-14 by bapster2006, on Flickr

Thanks for the photo. I noticed the other day that the brick section facing the interchange was up and looked quite nice. Then I noticed another section go up facing the holiday station in a completely separate set of brick colors/tones. I'm tired of the brick mishmash constituting an interesting facade.

Here's the brick on the south side.


Junction Flats south face 3-15-14 by bapster2006, on Flickr