urbanMSP

A grocer is going to be converting the entire 3800 block on the south side of East Lake into an "old-fashioned" grocery store:
http://www.longfellownokomismessenger.c ... ke-street/

F & C (locked):
http://finance-commerce.com/2013/06/jus ... ow-market/

Sadly, it sounds like the only two story structure on the block will be demolished for parking.

Interesting that this section of East Lake has a number of alleys that "T" before reaching Lake, enabling continuous commercial frontage. Makes a lot of sense. I know there have been a few instance where this has been done retroactively further west, vacating an alley and constructing a new outlet to one of the side streets, but it would appear that these were done as part of the original platting.

Does anyone know which "existing house will be razed" for the additional 14 parking spots? Too bad they can't use the 60 auto sales lot across the street.

That would be a shame to tear down anything for on-site parking. This neighborhood has oodles of "free" on-street parking, both on Lake Street and side streets. Obviously grocery stores have fairly high parking demands, and this area isn't exactly transit-rich, but I feel like they can work with the City to develop a better option than tearing down buildings.

This stretch of Lake St. is so blighted with surface parking lots and gaps in storefronts. This, combined with the lack of density, is what I feel is holding this corridor with tons of potential back.

They plan on reusing the existing taxpayer structure on the NE corner of the property, otherwise I think it would be idea to use the 'T' alley MNdible loves so much for perpendicular parking.

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/sites/tcda ... -17-11.jpg

Oof. 51 parking spaces. Plus at least a dozen free on-street spaces that are basically adjacent. That is overkill. It says on that document that the minimum is 20 and the maximum is 71. That seems like a pretty vast range for a building that size (14k sq ft footprint) but I just ran the calculations and those numbers are correct.

I'm just gonna go ahead and say that our parking maximums are too low if you could legally build 71 parking spaces for that site, taking up more space than the building itself. Parking minimums can be lowered by transit proximity, providing bike parking, and pedestrian overlay districts. Shouldn't those bonuses also apply to parking maximums in the same area? I mean, this store would be totally within their right to tear down a SFH and build 20 more parking spaces if the owner so desired. Is that what we want?

East Lake needs a road diet!!!

-1 although what's so sad is that this was just redone with curb/gutter in the past few years. Much better than before but still... A center turn lane (a vegetated median where turn lanes are not needed) and bicycle lanes/shoulders would move traffic nearly as well as the existing 4 lane section east of 27th Ave. The current condition enables weaving and lane changing to get around turning cars.

When they re-did Lake just a few years ago, I know 3-lane segments were discussed for the less busy portions. I'm not sure why none were implemented. However, I now see it as a blessing in disguise since we're talking about streetcar in the Greenway that could eventually extend down East Lake.

I have some thoughts on that but I'm going to post them in the Midtown Corridor thread.

This is under construction. The portion of the building being saved could actually turn out to be quite attractive. They stripped off the old metal paneling and there is some nice brick ornamentation that's been exposed beneath the blue areas:
https://maps.google.com/?ll=44.948357,- ... 1,,0,-7.74

Opens Monday, according to Facebook. They have pictures- the restored building exterior is gorgeous (see previous post for "before" image); just a shame about the parking lot.
https://www.facebook.com/LongfellowMarket

This is a beautifully designed project and creates a community focal point much like the Hennepin Lund's did for my neighborhood.