urbanMSP

Because people in Whittier and Phillips don't give their kids stupid, too precious names like Aiden, Logan, Grace and Riley?

Yeah, more like "Thresh", "Tice" and "Killer"!

I think this sums it up.

[BBvideo 425,350]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMr8Y0aukXI[/BBvideo]

Because people in Whittier and Phillips don't give their kids stupid, too precious names like Aiden, Logan, Grace and Riley?

Yeah, more like "Thresh", "Tice" and "Killer"!

haha

Rybak would really like to see some movement on this issue (and others) before he leaves office in a year: http://finance-commerce.com/2012/12/on- ... ore-deals/

I recently spoke to someone from the Met Council about this at a Metro Transit open house. She seemed to think this was going to happen soon, and it was in fact a significant thing for RT to do by the end of his term. She said K-Mart was very close to agreeing to a plan that would indeed keep them at Lake and Nicollet.

Thought I'd address the issue of countdown pedestrian lights that someone mentioned in a previous post.

Any new pedestrian signals have to be the countdown type, so that's a given.

The reason why you see so few of them on existing lights in Minneapolis compared to the suburbs is that the countdown modules only come in 16" or, less commonly, dual 12" sizes. A while ago Minneapolis converted all their pedestrian lights to LEDs, in the process removing decades old dual 8" housings and replacing them with single 12" housings, which of course are cheaper than 16" versions, especially when LEDs were more expensive than now. The suburbs have been using 16" housings for years, so the old dual 8" and dual 12" housings in the suburbs need replacement anyway, and if it's a newer 16" they can pop in a countdown module in a matter of minutes. All the electronics are in the module itself, so no reprogramming the controller is necessary, and they can even be used with old electro-mechanical controllers.

Like the suburbs, St. Paul used dual 12" a lot, and they've chosen to retrofit existing housings rather than replace them with single 16" like the suburbs are doing.

Notes from the June 18 meeting of the city entity working on this:
http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 110163.pdf

Their goal is to have all necessary property under "friendly" control by November 1st. I am assuming, as it is not explained, that "friendly control" means parties on board with reopening the street. If this goal is met, that is a huge step.

http://www.southwestjournal.com/news/ne ... ollet-lake

Well, who's got a developer in their rolodex that can roll the Sears folks in that massive parking lot they've been hoarding on Minneapolis most important intersection?

Ryan or Opus could take on this project.

Not that it's a good idea, but couldn't you just tear down the part of the Kmart building that's in the road, creating two smaller retail spaces on each side. Then we could reopen Nicollet and then it might be easier to develop the area.

Not that it's a good idea, but couldn't you just tear down the part of the Kmart building that's in the road, creating two smaller retail spaces on each side. Then we could reopen Nicollet and then it might be easier to develop the area.

I'm pretty sute the redevelopment of the old KMart corner at 66th and Lyndale in Richfield retained part of the old KMart building (the strip-mall portion on the eastern end of the site). So it's definitely possible.

I'm pretty sure that the issue is more like the parcels are owned be a few different parties, and then there are multiple building leases on top of that. It's not like Sears just owns the whole block.

*It does look like Sears owns the whole section where Nicollet would continue through... (I'm not sure that was always the case, I think some of it may have been consolidated when Sherman started negotiating deals)

This shows why it's a little bit messy. The project area isn't just that block, and a the properties North of the Greenway actually include what would be Nicollet too.

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 094235.pdf

Well the "project" is a gigantic redevelopment. First step should be to reconnect Hennepin, and that wouldn't be too difficult, you just have to get the Kmart on board with being torn in half. Then maybe we could even be bold and let some form based zoning fill in the rest of the land piece by piece rather than one giant mega project.

Well the "project" is a gigantic redevelopment. First step should be to reconnect Hennepin, and that wouldn't be too difficult, you just have to get the Kmart on board with being torn in half.

Eminent domain? Why does Sears have to be "on board" at all to reconnect Nicollet?

Probably because it would be nice to continue to have SEARS be a tax payer/tenant in the new development... being it's one of their highest performing Kmarts in the Country. And I do want to see them re-develop their st. paul store as they have suggested, let's not have the TC's piss them off lol

Just curious if we have hard data/confirmation from Sears stating that it is one of their highest performing Kmarts in the country? I'd assume it is pretty busy location for them, but wondering if the sales per sq ft justify the space or if they can do similar business in a smaller footprint.

It's already a smallish footprint, at least when compared to modern big-box stores. There's an awful lot crammed into that store.

If it's there highest-performing store, they aren't going anywhere. They're not going to leave the market over eminent domain.