Hiawatha & 54th St - VA Station Development

Calhoun-Isles, Cedar-Riverside, Longfellow, Nokomis, Phillips, Powderhorn, and Southwest
VAStationDude
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Hiawatha & 54th St - VA Station Development

Postby VAStationDude » September 28th, 2015, 7:09 pm

The city and NENA are hosting a community meeting about an upcoming RFP for multi family development at 54th and Riverview Road Wednesday September 30 from 6:30-8 at the Morris Park Community Center. The city recently acquired two single family homes to compliment the adjacent city owned parcel on Riverview.

I'll be there advocating for pedestrian improvements including walk up units, bump outs at the Riverview and 54th, a boulevard along 54th and a narrower 54th street west of Hiawatha.


https://facebook.com/events/1602521466687880/

VAStationDude
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby VAStationDude » September 28th, 2015, 7:33 pm

As you can see on the Facebook event page the parcels are separated the senior housing driveway. A smaller version of the Oaks Station Place drive under entrance would be pretty rad.

HiawathaGuy
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby HiawathaGuy » September 29th, 2015, 8:38 am

I had noticed that the area had new plot stakes a few months ago.
Glad to see the City is finally issuing an RFP for this property. I'm going to try and attend, since this is a few blocks from my house.

MNdible
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby MNdible » September 29th, 2015, 10:03 am

Based on the parcel layout, doesn't it seem like a foregone conclusion that this property will go to the same developers as the Riverview Apartments?

VAStationDude
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby VAStationDude » September 29th, 2015, 10:48 am

Yeah, probably. Obviously I hope they address the street much more successfully than Riverview.

HiawathaGuy
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby HiawathaGuy » September 29th, 2015, 2:46 pm

Based on the parcel layout, doesn't it seem like a foregone conclusion that this property will go to the same developers as the Riverview Apartments?
I think that's entirely possible. The Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation had been scouring the neighborhood for 6 years before closing on the land that they built the 42-unit, 4 story Riverview Apartments, on behalf of Minnehaha United Methodist Church and Nakomis Lutheran Church. This apartment building was built for the very low-income elderly and the very frail.

The foundation certainly could be in the market for more land, as they "concentrate on providing affordable housing, giving homeless families a permanent home once they’ve stabilized their situation", according to the interwebs. So this could be a good opportunity for them. They've built about 10 buildings throughout the metro over the last decade or so.

twincitizen
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby twincitizen » September 29th, 2015, 3:11 pm

Interesting site. Good accessibility to the Blue Line and Minnehaha Park, but absolutely zero neighborhood businesses to walk to. Even if you take the train to work every day, car ownership is all but required considering you can't do anything useful on foot.


Off-topic thought sure to derail the thread:
Is there any chance that the northern 500' feet or so of the VA parking lots could ever be developed?
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.9040659 ... a=!3m1!1e3
I know they recently added a parking structure close to the building. Do they just have an insatiable demand for parking? Plans for building expansion for future demand? How full do those northern reaches actually get? That just seems like a ton of valuable land that is being laid to waste. There's at least two whole city blocks of potential development there, perhaps 3 whole blocks if the VA can find the money for another parking structure (hint: they can...it'd be less than a drop in the bucket of federal spending). That's not an insignificant chunk of land in* a city that isn't making more.

*Note: VA is actually outside of Mpls' city limits and this "new" land would have to be annexed in.

mattaudio
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby mattaudio » September 29th, 2015, 4:12 pm

Another question about the VA Blue Line station - does the VA allow/not-disallow people walking through its parking lot to get from the station to the area west of 46th Ave S? Considering that the station is roughly in line with 56th St, it seems ridic that neighbors west of the VA would have to walk a half mile or more out of their way up to 54th St to get to the LRT.

VAStationDude
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby VAStationDude » September 29th, 2015, 5:15 pm

The official passage through their property is a gate on 46th Avenue they don't keep open much. I looked into it when house shopping. I found a home to my liking closer to the station and park.

I can imagine residents south of 54th prefer the gate not be left open permanently. I've been passed by a hole doctors in German luxury cars driving on 54th a couple times.

mattaudio
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby mattaudio » September 29th, 2015, 9:20 pm

Speaking of this neighborhood (sorry it's not for this development specifically) I see a notice from the VA in the new Nokomis-Longfellow Messenger that they plan to build 100 new units across Minnehaha Ave from their facility.

HiawathaGuy
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby HiawathaGuy » September 30th, 2015, 8:53 am

Speaking of this neighborhood (sorry it's not for this development specifically) I see a notice from the VA in the new Nokomis-Longfellow Messenger that they plan to build 100 new units across Minnehaha Ave from their facility.
Yes, that's been discussed/mentioned in another thread - I'll see if I can find it. Glad to see more news about it though!

HiawathaGuy
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby HiawathaGuy » September 30th, 2015, 9:05 am

Another question about the VA Blue Line station - does the VA allow/not-disallow people walking through its parking lot to get from the station to the area west of 46th Ave S? Considering that the station is roughly in line with 56th St, it seems ridic that neighbors west of the VA would have to walk a half mile or more out of their way up to 54th St to get to the LRT.
The VA does allow walking through their lot, but as VASD mentioned, that western gate is often closed. I've always wondered why they can't have a walk-through section in their fence. It makes the whole property seem so uninviting. Especially on the west side.
Interesting site. Good accessibility to the Blue Line and Minnehaha Park, but absolutely zero neighborhood businesses to walk to. Even if you take the train to work every day, car ownership is all but required considering you can't do anything useful on foot.

Off-topic thought sure to derail the thread:
Is there any chance that the northern 500' feet or so of the VA parking lots could ever be developed?

I know they recently added a parking structure close to the building. Do they just have an insatiable demand for parking? Plans for building expansion for future demand? How full do those northern reaches actually get? That just seems like a ton of valuable land that is being laid to waste. There's at least two whole city blocks of potential development there, perhaps 3 whole blocks if the VA can find the money for another parking structure (hint: they can...it'd be less than a drop in the bucket of federal spending). That's not an insignificant chunk of land in* a city that isn't making more.

*Note: VA is actually outside of Mpls' city limits and this "new" land would have to be annexed in.
True, there's not a lot of walk-able businesses in the immediate area. But there are commercial nodes not very far away. But having a car in this area of the City is still pretty necessary, regardless. The nearest grocery store is 11 blocks west of me, and I live near the 50th Street LRT station, and even that takes a car. But at least there are 2 bus routes that come to the VA frequently which head west on 54th - so those commercial nodes are at least accessible.

As for the northern end of the lot being annexed by Minneapolis. I would say there's a snowball's chance in hell of the Federal Government giving up land to the City. They don't often sell or 'give up' land easily, especially since they don't pay any taxes on it.

VAStationDude
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby VAStationDude » September 30th, 2015, 8:08 pm

I should have just sent an email to cm Johnson. Hearing a whine fest from people who bought homes adjacent to a commercial corridor upset about apartment development wasn't worth my time of staff's time.

HiawathaGuy
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby HiawathaGuy » October 1st, 2015, 7:53 am

I wasn't able to make it, as we had our neighborhood wine night last night (I know, my priorities!). But I went to several meetings like this back when Olin was proposing apartments along Minnehaha Ave. Everyone was old and cranky. It made the meetings a complete waste of time. Even the LRT Station overlay meetings were this way. People complaining about the "City taking their homes!", etc. Just stupid, non-rational stuff. Very unproductive.
I'm glad the City has clearer guidelines and prevailing minds (usually), so that we actually see positive change. I look forward to the added density in this transit corridor.

Hopefully these developments will motivate Olin Crossings (which owns most of the open lots along Minnehaha Ave. south of 53rd Street) to dust off their plans for the proposed (but withdrawn) 54th & Minnehaha apartments. The neighbors east of there hated the idea of them, but they included a corner coffee shop. Which I think would be a nice added benefit to this section of town.

VAStationDude
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby VAStationDude » October 1st, 2015, 8:21 am

The senior apartment residents were complaining about parking and traffic early. Later on they wanted a coffee shop or convenience store at 54th and Riverview. *face palm* I left shortly thereafter.

Anondson
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby Anondson » April 19th, 2018, 7:17 pm

Hijacking this for the wider 54th Station Area, but Nick just posted two proposals for 1 block north of the station.

https://twitter.com/nickmagrino/status/ ... 9494760448

https://twitter.com/nickmagrino/status/ ... 0000992257

HiawathaGuy
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby HiawathaGuy » April 23rd, 2018, 4:36 pm

Hijacking this for the wider 54th Station Area, but Nick just posted two proposals for 1 block north of the station.

https://twitter.com/nickmagrino/status/ ... 9494760448

https://twitter.com/nickmagrino/status/ ... 0000992257
Finance & Commerce has picked up on the story now.
Oaks Properties plans more apartments on Blue Line
*LOCKED*

I'm very excited to see these last two vacant properties become housing! Looking forward to learning more.

twincitizen
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Re: 54th & Riverview Road Development

Postby twincitizen » April 25th, 2018, 6:33 pm

Those look nice. Good to fill in that weird stretch of a remote, forgotten area of the city.

Y'know what would be great is if someone could convince the VA to build more structured parking tight to the building, or even better, along Crosstown, freeing up all that surface parking for development. Extend 55th Street through the site and develop everything north of the new street. That would be 3 full city blocks for development, which could include everything from single-family homes to large apartment buildings.

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.9047061 ... a=!3m1!1e3

alexschief
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Re: Hiawatha & 54th St - VA Station Development

Postby alexschief » August 19th, 2019, 12:16 pm

This project has mostly flown under the radar, but both buildings are now well under way. When completed, they will comprise 177 units, 129 car parking spaces, and 122 bike parking spaces. All a comfortable walk from the VA Medical Center Station.

Image

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thatchio
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Re: Hiawatha & 54th St - VA Station Development

Postby thatchio » September 2nd, 2019, 12:07 pm

It's nice to see development happening in this station area.


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