urbanMSP

I will be too. It seems decently busy when I walk by, but still... Bookstore.

Other spaces: The top two floors of Sak's, though it would be difficult to see how it would connect to the rest of the retail now that the rest of those floors are office. Its probably more likely that the bank expands into that area as well.

There's a decent amount of space left in City Center, too, wrapping around the hotel on both levels. Might be too far from Nicollet Mall, but a destination retailer probably wouldn't be hurt by that as much.

I seem to recall LA Fitness was scouting locations downtown, that was probably well over a year ago. I would love to see them take one of the top Sak's floors.

So now that the two main spots in City Center are leased, where are the remaining large empty retail locations along the mall or in the nearby skyway level that could support new businesses? Off the top of my head I can think of the Nic on 5th and Renaissance square, but are there any others? There are so many more retailers that I would love to see; REI, Von Maur, Bauer Hockey, Apple, Microsoft, Best Buy, Duluth Trading Co. and others.

Wasn't a downtown Best Buy a hot topic before the recession?

Also, doesn't Sports Authority have guns? I know Dick's does. I wonder if this location will sell them? The Midway Wal-Mart does.

Guns what we need is a gun shop when you have how many banks in a 3 block radius!! I can see office workers going pigeon hunting on the roofs of building!! Not sure whether to take this as a bad joke or some sad reality! Most buildings have no guns allowed in them so I don't think that buying a gun is a lunch break thing.

I've never seen guns at a Sports Authority.

They have some hunting stuff on their website, was just curious. I think most guns purchased for bank robberies are generally from the store across the street minutes before the stick up, so I could see why it would be a concern.

Impulsive bank robberies aside, I'd have no problem with a gun store downtown. A lunch break oriented retail area is what we have, not what we're trying to achieve.

Is anything being done with the exterior of the City Center now that two new tenants are coming in? I recall seeing images from the mall redesign but those weren't from the building owner.

I think this is the news we're all waiting for, but it may not be coming. With Shorenstein putting the building up for sale, and the timeline of the tenants moving in, it seems less likely than ever that they will be doing anything beyond what is absolutely necessary (replacing doors, windows and tenant signage). I'll be very happy to be proven wrong, but it just seems super unlikely that Shorenstein is going to put several million dollars into any facade improvements.

I am still cautiously optimistic there will be some upgrade. The precast panels are not hard to demo and I still find it hard to believe any new tenant would sign a lease given the current exterior condition and negative image it portrays of the complex. However, if nothing is done to improve the outside, I believe the retail spaces there will stay active for maybe a few years, then falter again rather quickly. The poor design is not conducive to encouraging retail in a highly dense urban setting, and has a long standing negative image in the community. This has really been true since it was built in 1983. Even then there was a public outcry of the design, and it has faltered ever since. This is The Nicollet Mall's version of "Block E "if there ever was one.

John I have to agree with all you are saying. City Center never did act like a retail hub even when there was a department store as an anchor. I blame the exterior and the psychology of what people perceive it is from the outside. A lesson in poor architectural design for a thesis paper. While they may have saved up front in building costs. They have had 30 years of poor returns due to the bad design choices.

The New York City and Chicago locations certainly do not sell handguns. I think this store will be viable without that particular merchandise segment.

Eden Prairie Sports Authority doesn't sell guns, just to add to this.

I seem to remember Minneapolis has no allowance for gun shops in the zoning code, expect one 'grandfathered', litigious exception on Chicago Ave near Lake.

Not looking at it right now, but iirc they are conditonally allowed in C4 and one of the downtown service districts, but there are also some pretty restrictive development standards.

Edit: They're conditional in C4 and B4C. 250' buffer from R and OR, 500' from schools, day cares, libraries, and parks.

I seem to remember Minneapolis has no allowance for gun shops in the zoning code, expect one 'grandfathered', litigious exception on Chicago Ave near Lake.

I always wondered how that place came to exist.

Not looking at it right now, but iirc they are conditonally allowed in C4 and one of the downtown service districts, but there are also some pretty restrictive development standards.

Edit: They're conditional in C4 and B4C. 250' buffer from R and OR, 500' from schools, day cares, libraries, and parks.

Makes sense. It seems like it would be sort of like strip clubs. I don't believe you can explicitly 'zone' them out of existence.

That's right. As far as I understand, you can't completely zone a legal business operation out of existence, but you can severely restrict or limit it to just a few possible sites. I wonder how that works for some tiny suburban municipalities though? Certainly their zoning codes just straight up ban a number of uses. I'm not sure how the courts have drawn that line, but I'm sure it's fuzzy as hell. Cities seem to have pretty free range to ban things within 300 feet of residential, 1000 feet of schools, etc. (all made up numbers, just for discussion)

Anyways, it appears Sports Authority doesn't sell guns, so we can probably move on from that particular point.

How would people feel about moving the last several pages of discussion to the "City Center" thread?

Does anyone know what's going on with the skyway level of the former Saks? The steel stud they had been putting up are now covered in drywall, routing all skyway traffic in a corridor along the SE wall.

They're starting construction on whatever they're doing to convert the space into a Walgreens', and nicely letting skyway traffic continue while it happens.

I walked through there today and it feels so different with that temp hallway wrapping toward the backside. I can't wait for this to take shape and open. Target is going to lose some of my grocery business!

So today I made trip to the suburbs to hit up bed bath and beyond and i realized downtown definitely needs one. There's a pretty large radius. I kind of hate it and i had crazy anxiety in there but i think it would do well. Plus broad city.