West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - General Topics

Calhoun-Isles, Cedar-Riverside, Longfellow, Nokomis, Phillips, Powderhorn, and Southwest
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Re: West Lake Station Area - Multimodal study, Development, etc.

Postby twincitizen » May 12th, 2016, 2:26 pm

I would anticipate something like Excelsior and Grand on a smaller footprint. First floor retail with residential above, and a parking ramp tucked into the mix. I sure hope most of the current retail remains (or at least similar stores). There's a good mix of services in there for people who live nearby... food, Walgreens, fitness, bookstore, etc.
The current west building is built over a one story parking ramp, used by the office tenants and retail employees. Something similar could happen on the current lots. The 'full parking' is usually the west lot. A better pedestrian flow within the lots and a proper crosswalk over Market Plaza could help with that. Oh, end some meaningful bike access. It's on the flippin greenway afterall.
Very feasible that this will be redeveloped into two halves/phases. Retaining the private extension of Market Plaza (the "street" in the middle) makes a ton of sense. It's the only vehicle ingress/egress and has the traffic light. It will almost certainly stay.

Which half gets razed & redeveloped first will probably depend heavily on the tenant/vacancy mix at the time, etc. From a parking standpoint, it would make more sense to do the east building first, since the west building has the underground parking to serve in the interim.

I actually hope this is not redeveloped until after SWLRT is running. It will make dealing with the neighbors (slightly) easier if the train is actually in operation, delivering workers and customers to the front doors (well...near the front doors).

I know it's not exactly Doran's forte, but I think it's going to take more than a 6-story stick building to make this site pencil out. We don't know what he paid yet, but the acquisition costs here had to be way, way higher than just about any comparable development site. This is an actively successful & profitable shopping center, even if we may not love the current suburban form. It's going to take some serious dollars for it to make sense to knock it all down and displace all of those businesses. I don't think 6-story stick over some retail is enough.

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Re: West Lake Station Area - Multimodal study, Development, etc.

Postby thatchio » May 12th, 2016, 10:41 pm

Pretty sure Doran built Calhoun Commons across the street. FYI. That said, he was also involved in Bridges.

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Re: West Lake Station Area - Multimodal study, Development, etc.

Postby Archiapolis » May 13th, 2016, 7:39 am

Good luck getting anything over six stories here. See Trammell Crow's proposal, Lakes Residences, et al because neighbors, Greenway, shadowing, etc

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Re: West Lake Station Area - Multimodal study, Development, etc.

Postby BBMplsMN » May 13th, 2016, 8:20 am

For the Trammell Crow building, neighbors and CIDNA (Cedar-Isles-Dean Neighborhood Assoc.) wanted a five story building, so even six stories was a concession.

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Re: West Lake Station Area - Multimodal study, Development, etc.

Postby mattaudio » May 13th, 2016, 8:34 am

Ah, bringing back memories. It was so awesome when Trammell Crow released that powerpoint with a bunch of viewshed comparisons, tower vs midrise megablock. And the midrise megablock was basically a big middle finger to the majority of neighbors, since the massing killed far more views than the height of a potential tower. But neighbors wanted it anyways.

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Re: Uptown General Topics & Development Map

Postby BBMplsMN » June 10th, 2016, 1:07 pm

Received the following notice today that Calhoun Village wants to add a drive-thru facility. Not sure which business wants this, but my guess is Walgreen's. Here's the letter:

NOTICE OF A PUBLIC HEARING
Tony Kuechle of Doran Companies, LLC, on behalf of Pfaff Calhoun, LLC, has submitted a site plan review application to add a drive-through facility to an existing shopping center located at 3200 Lake St W in the C3S Community Shopping Center District.

The City Planning Commission will meet on Monday, June 27, 2016 at 4:30 p.m., in Room 317 City Hall, 350 S. 5th St., Minneapolis, MN. Interested parties are invited to attend and be heard. Planning Department staff will issue a recommendation to the Planning Commission. After hearing from the public, the Planning Commission will make a determination based on required legal findings of fact. Please visit www.minneapolismn.gov/meetings/planning for the agenda with staff reports (web page will be updated by the end of the day Wednesday prior to the meeting date).

If you have questions about the project, please contact the City staff person listed below. If you would like to submit comments, you can make them verbally at the meeting or submit them in writing to:

Shanna Sether, Senior Planner - 250 South 4th Street Room 300, Minneapolis, MN 55415 Phone (612) 673-2307 Fax (612) 673-2526 E-mail: [email protected].

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Re: Uptown General Topics & Development Map

Postby FISHMANPET » June 10th, 2016, 1:10 pm

They want to add it to the current Barnes & Noble space to be able to market it to a drug store (so Walgreens but they can't say Walgreens) in the back/north of the building. They're also proposing some improved bike lanes through the complex.

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Re: Uptown General Topics & Development Map

Postby BBMplsMN » June 10th, 2016, 3:07 pm

That could be good. The parking lot at Calhoun Village is typically a crowded mess, and diverting some traffic to the little-used backside of the building for a quick pickup seems like a good use of that space.

Better bike lanes would be welcome too. However, it gets a little dicey on both Lake Street and Market Plaza. So even if there are better bike lanes from the Greenway through the strip mall, I'm not sure what they can do once they get to those two streets. It's dangerous, especially near the entrance to the Whole Foods parking lot.

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Re: Uptown General Topics & Development Map

Postby FISHMANPET » June 10th, 2016, 3:08 pm

I heard that improved bike lanes on Market Plaza are on somebody's radar, but who knows when. As it stands a bike path all the way to Lake St is kind of a joke because nobody in their right mind would want to bike anywhere near that area.

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Re: West Lake Station Area - Multimodal study, Development, etc.

Postby twincitizen » June 14th, 2016, 1:29 pm

http://www.southwestjournal.com/news/de ... ket-plaza/

More or less confirmed: Walgreens will replace Barnes & Noble and H&R Block next year, with a drive-thru on the back of the building, which is allowed by code. I don't really have a problem with it, other than it completely upends our assumptions that the eastern half of the shopping center would be the first half to be redeveloped. You have to assume Walgreens will have AT LEAST a 10-year lease in the new space.

The good news, I guess, is that the western half could be redeveloped sooner rather than later, pending expiring leases, etc. Gonna be one hell of a parking crunch when they do so, however, because the employee parking and such is underneath the west building.

Lots of run-of-the-mill but probably well-used tenants in the west building: massage, yoga, fitness, picture framing, pet food, mediocre Chinese food, cell phone, and dentist and urgent care upstairs. That's a lot of tenants to deal with...seeing as how the east building is staying for the foreseeable future, hopefully several of them can relocate over there.

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Re: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

Postby twincitizen » September 1st, 2016, 8:31 am

Doran has officially purchased Calhoun Village for $25MM: http://finance-commerce.com/2016/08/dor ... ar-uptown/

No timeline for Walgreens relocation to the east building. I'd guess B&N will stay open through the end of the year.

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Re: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

Postby min-chi-cbus » September 1st, 2016, 1:05 pm

I don't know how to feel about this -- is it bad because that means any impending massive redevelopment is now that much further off, or is it a good thing because Doran is investing in this property (presumably because they know how important it will become)? Or neither?

This is one area along the SW Corridor where I expect to see major redevelopment, so this news is mixed for me...but I'm unsure if I'm misreading it.

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Re: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

Postby seanrichardryan » September 1st, 2016, 1:12 pm

Doran is primarily a developer, not a lease management company. I imagine any new leases will be short term. My thought has always been to empty the west building, rebuild with new commercial tenants lining Market plaza, perhaps with an open commercial courtyard running E-W with access the new SWLRT. Move desired tenants over and redevelop West building in a similar manner.
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Re: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

Postby twincitizen » September 1st, 2016, 2:32 pm

That's the most likely scenario, though there will be a huge parking crunch if they do tear down the west building (and assuming the east building is fully leased at that time), because the west building has the underground parking primarily used by employees. As for the east building remaining, I have to assume Walgreens has signed at least a 10-year lease, if not longer. Though I suppose expecting total redevelopment of both buildings sooner than 10 years is pretty unrealistic, considering SWLRT won't even be running until early-mid 2021. If the east building is only standing for ~10-12 more years, that's still a win. That is, assuming the west building redevelopment gets underway during SWLRT construction, and assuming it's at least 8-10 stories.

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Re: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

Postby min-chi-cbus » September 1st, 2016, 2:58 pm

Okay, thanks! 8-10 years is much further out than I would have hoped to see this area redeveloped, but realistically that seems pretty plausible. I'd have like to hope that development could commence within the next 2-3 years, and be done prior to the SWLRT station opening.

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West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

Postby Anondson » December 22nd, 2016, 7:56 pm

Calhoun Towers was bought by Bader Development.

http://finance-commerce.com/2016/12/bad ... nneapolis/
[paywall]

This property. https://flic.kr/p/QfiD8Y

I've long hoped something starts happening here when the station is a fact.

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Re: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

Postby RailBaronYarr » December 27th, 2016, 10:30 am

This was a good nugget for the "filtering does work" crowd:
The fully occupied Calhoun Towers has 108 units ranging from studios to up to three-bedroom apartments. Unit sizes range between 510 square feet and 1,875 square feet. Rents start at $850 and top out at $2,431, according to CoStar data.
$2,431 for a 3BR, 1,875 sqft unit in a concrete building in this location seems like a pretty good deal.

The article also mentions that the 4.6 acre site has some room for additional development (not sure about capacity from a zoning perspective, but the original owners wanted to build a second tower but never did). Importantly, this site is steps away from the planned West Lake SWLRT station. Additionally, the city/county recommended long-term that 31st St here be realigned (link, page 62). This was in the long-term plans, but it'd be cool to see that moved up if the HCRRA was willing to do a land-swap to give the developer a contiguous plot along the entire north side of the new 31st St.

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Re: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

Postby Anondson » December 27th, 2016, 6:01 pm

Oooh, a realigned 31st plus land swap would be a nice thing. Putting a nice space adjacent to the platform by assembling developable parcels directly next to the station.

Unrelated, but what is the story with the now-demolished single family home at the southwest corner of Excelsior and 32nd? Who acquired the property and what is going to go in its place?

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Re: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

Postby seanrichardryan » December 27th, 2016, 6:08 pm

The person that lived there died. The Minikahda Club bought it in probate. I assume nothing will go there, or perhaps they'll build course restrooms for the club using the utility hook-ups.
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Re: West Lake Station / Calhoun Village area - multimodal study, development, etc.

Postby Anondson » December 27th, 2016, 7:04 pm

While I endorse Froggie's proposed 4 to 3 conversion of Excelsior from Market to France Ave after a cyclist was recently driven over and killed on Excelsior, I was curious because there is still a lot of dangerous stopping and high speed weaving at Excelsior and 32nd.

Anyway, short of a 4–3 conversion here, if the property will not be developed ever I would hope maybe a bus bay could go in here. Move the bus stop from the northwest side of 32nd to southwest along the property of the demolished house.


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