West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Calhoun-Isles, Cedar-Riverside, Longfellow, Nokomis, Phillips, Powderhorn, and Southwest
RedDutch
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby RedDutch » September 25th, 2021, 6:45 am

The strip mall site is clearly big enough to handle multiple buildings with retail at the base, residential above. It would be cool to have a pedestrian walkway in between the buildings with outdoor cafes and retail. There is huge potential.

BigIdeasGuy
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby BigIdeasGuy » September 27th, 2021, 12:00 pm

Fair point. I still hold out hope we will one day get a hotel on this side of the lake as I think it would be popular. The parking lot would be perfect for it!
I gotta disagree on this one, the building and parking lot need to become parkland. I realize that the major challenges in that, starting with economic. In the long term I think that's the best use of the parcel

RedDutch
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby RedDutch » September 27th, 2021, 12:58 pm

Fair point. I still hold out hope we will one day get a hotel on this side of the lake as I think it would be popular. The parking lot would be perfect for it!
I gotta disagree on this one, the building and parking lot need to become parkland. I realize that the major challenges in that, starting with economic. In the long term I think that's the best use of the parcel
There is a gigantic park right next door

uptownbro
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby uptownbro » September 29th, 2021, 3:44 pm

Gas station was demolished today. Not sure what kinda site clean up will be required

BigIdeasGuy
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby BigIdeasGuy » September 30th, 2021, 11:32 am

Fair point. I still hold out hope we will one day get a hotel on this side of the lake as I think it would be popular. The parking lot would be perfect for it!
I gotta disagree on this one, the building and parking lot need to become parkland. I realize that the major challenges in that, starting with economic. In the long term I think that's the best use of the parcel
There is a gigantic park right next door
There is, that doesn't mean it's a bad idea to make the park bigger.

Or maybe use it as a chance for the park board to get rid of a few smaller less prime properties under the no net loss policy

Anondson
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby Anondson » September 30th, 2021, 2:30 pm

I cloud get behind expanding that park, turning parking over to parkland, if all residential properties within 3 blocks were automatically upzoned to the next category.

Mdcastle
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby Mdcastle » September 30th, 2021, 6:18 pm

I could get behind expanding the park, but it should be the office building across the street, not this weird parcel separated by six lanes of traffic.

alexschief
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby alexschief » September 30th, 2021, 6:59 pm

I'm mostly of the opinion that simply creating "green space" doesn't do a lot of good if you don't have a clear plan or idea for how to use or landscape it. In this case, use the land for housing so that more people can live next to the existing park and enjoy its amenities.

Silophant
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby Silophant » September 30th, 2021, 9:16 pm

We honestly have too too much parkland in the city. With a few exceptions in specific neighborhoods (like the new North Loop park), MPRB needs to focus on making the existing parkland better instead of single-mindedly acquiring more land to turn into seldom-used lawns.
Joey Senkyr
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thespeedmccool
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby thespeedmccool » October 1st, 2021, 2:37 pm

We honestly have too too much parkland in the city.
I'm gonna stop you right there.

Trademark
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby Trademark » October 2nd, 2021, 12:33 pm

We honestly have too too much parkland in the city.
I'm gonna stop you right there.
Have you been to other cities. I can't think of any that comes close to the spread of parks all around Minneapolis. I'm not saying that we can never add more parks. But we have greater needs.

thespeedmccool
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby thespeedmccool » October 3rd, 2021, 12:56 pm

Have you been to other cities. I can't think of any that comes close to the spread of parks all around Minneapolis. I'm not saying that we can never add more parks. But we have greater needs.
I can't really speak to this specific parcel (gun to my head, I think it would make sense to make the western 1/3 a plaza connected to the adjacent trails and the rest housing,) but I think it's reeeeeally bold to claim the city has "too much" parkland.

This discussion could go in a separate thread, but I would say there are some notable missing pieces in the Minneapolis park system. The Grand Rounds through Northeast is currently underwhelming and the river north of Downtown is still not all MPRB-owned. Maybe this spot in town doesn't need new parkland, but to claim there's too much is a step too far.

To borrow a term, we could use a "both/and" approach to this parcel. There's plenty of space for tons of new housing an a park dedication. Like I said above, maybe a plaza on the western corner or a linear park where the Market Plaza "ROW" has the bike connection to the Greenway. Nothing major, but parks and public space should be a consideration of every project.

grant1simons2
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby grant1simons2 » October 4th, 2021, 9:20 am

We honestly have too too much parkland in the city.
I'm gonna stop you right there.
Have you been to other cities. I can't think of any that comes close to the spread of parks all around Minneapolis. I'm not saying that we can never add more parks. But we have greater needs.
There's a balance between the two. The Twin Cities doesn't have enough equitable distribution of parkland. There's so much more we need to do to create carbon sinks. Northeast and North need a full riverfront park, we need to tackle the barriers of the railroads and dedicate that land to be parks with walking paths and monitored prairie gardens. At the same time, our lakes are an important part of the watershed, and we should be dedicating as much land surrounding them as possible to grow our native hardwood forests.

uptownbro
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby uptownbro » October 6th, 2021, 8:03 am

I would trade part of this lot for the wedge between dean parkway ,bde maka ska parkway and lake st. Having this side be all parkland is a cool idea. At min the parking lot as is today needs to go

RedDutch
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby RedDutch » October 7th, 2021, 7:43 am

Why not build a ramp that is wrapped in apartments to accommodate any buildings and the existing? Like the Duffey Building proposed for North Loop. Clearly digging is not an option here......water table issues.

mplser
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby mplser » October 8th, 2021, 7:28 am

I'd be supportive of additional parkland on that lot if Bde Maka Ska Parkway got rerouted to connect to Market Plaza instead of Dean Parkway. That way the park would actually meet the lake.

StandishGuy
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby StandishGuy » October 22nd, 2021, 8:51 am

Side note: The street name "Market Plaza" sounds so 1970s- era strip mall, and I wish it could get changed to something more related to the new, urban context. Something like extending Bde Maka Ska Boulevard or renaming it to York or Xerxes (whichever street it aligns with on the street grid.). Obviously, this is not a real pressing issue, but that Market Plaza name has always rubbed me the wrong way. :)

twincitizen
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby twincitizen » October 22nd, 2021, 10:43 am

Maka Skaza

Anondson
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby Anondson » October 22nd, 2021, 11:54 am

Side note: The street name "Market Plaza" sounds so 1970s- era strip mall, …
Kinda the 90s-era new urbanism street name vibes though, too.

thespeedmccool
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Re: West Lake Apartments - 3012 Excelsior Blvd

Postby thespeedmccool » October 22nd, 2021, 12:04 pm

Maka Skaza
Now we're getting somewhere


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