urbanMSP

Apartments for the other half of the block are back. Eight whole stories. What a waste.

https://lims.minneapolismn.gov/download ... 207th%20St

Sherman plans to submit a development application to the city this fall. Vertical construction could start a year later. If all goes according to plan, the building would open in 2021, LaFave said.

Sherman could have gone with an even taller, denser apartment building since the developer is planning to frame the apartments with steel. But Sherman has found that buildings with 200 apartments or fewer fully lease in about 12 months, which is optimal for the developer, LaFave said.

Not necessarily though - if you look at the plans, they actually show an alternative 10-story option that just has a slimmer massing above the 2nd floor (that could be a good thing). So 10 stories instead of 8, but a very similar number of units, possibly even fewer. Comp Plan goal met? Height and density are not the same thing.

The issue here isn't convincing Sherman to build 10-11 stories, it's convincing them to spend an additional $10 million (approximately) and increase their risk by adding another 50 units or so. Sherman wanting a building to fully lease up in one year is an extremely low risk proposition, and that probably does merit some push-back. I thought the industry standard was more like 18 months. Several other developers have noted their reluctance to go above 300 units, due to the lengthier lease up period. That's fair. Not wanting to exceed 200 units / 12-month lease up maybe is too conservative for this location.

If the alternative given is for a taller building with the same unit count, then I would not be surprised if they determined the unit count based on available parking in the pre-designed full block underground ramp that they put in for the Thrivent building.

If the alternative given is for a taller building with the same unit count, then I would not be surprised if they determined the unit count based on available parking in the pre-designed full block underground ramp that they put in for the Thrivent building.

So I'm a big fan of trying to increase density over a larger area as opposed to building tall buildings for the sake of tall buildings, and honestly I was preparing to respond here that people shouldn't hate on 8-story medium density housing. Then I looked at the proposal and was reminded of this specific location and the things surrounding it. In most of the city their proposed building would be a great addition, but here it's kind of pathetic.

If Sherman only wants to build ~200 units, I'd think they could do so using only half of this lot space, saving the other half for future development when the market can bear it - or when their finances can bear it. This seems like a great place for a couple of ~15 story apartment buildings given the surrounding uses.

Even if their balance sheets indicate that the 11 stories this construction method allows is all the higher they can go, they could probably get close to 200 units in 11 stories in just over half this footprint, leaving plenty of space for other construction later.