urbanMSP

Mod note: Use this thread to discuss Nicollet Avenue (and surroundings) between Grant Street and Lake Street, encompassing Loring Park, Stevens Square, and Whittier neighborhoods.

Since there is a thread to discuss what it will take to develop DTE, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in discussing what can spur further redevelopment along Nicollet Avenue south of Grant, as well as around Steven's Square. I've always thought these areas had a lot of potential being so close to downtown, etc. and having an interesting building stock but always seemed to be ignored by the city. During the condo boom, there were quite a few buildings that went up, along with buildings converted to condos. I'd love to see higher density/mixed use buildings go up along Nicollet.

Thoughts?

Never thought about it before, but I suppose a streetcar down Nicollet through Eat Street (reconnected to Lake Street), plus a redevelopment of the park itself with some public art (partner with the MIA/MCAD on this?), a more bicycle friendly Franklin Avenue with better streetscaping, and incentivizing somebody like PPL to come in and redevelop some of the commercial space and surface level parking lots fronting Franklin (ala Chicago Crossings) would all be a start....

I'd also like to say that I, personally, would hate it if a 'condo boom' tampered with the character of Eat Street. I think there is enough empty, developable land that new condos and hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants can coexist peacefully, though!

I had once posted this in the MPLS fantasies section!

One of my great fantasies is to really create a unified "eat street" and actually connect the Loring Park and Stevens Neighborhoods. I'd propose a freeway trench cap over i94 creating a new park and an east/west connection between loring park's oak grove, and stevens' 17th. People traveling down Nicollet will have a hard time realizing that they've just spanned an interstate. I figure with some good scale buildings and public spaces you could attract a lot of people to a new neighborhood with a capacity of 1,000-2,000 added to the DT population. Not completely thought out yet, and yes it would cost a bundle.

Considering that the primary purpose of a "Cap" is to make two neighborhoods cohesively rejoin -- and as seemlessly as possible -- this model does that extremely well. Improvements aside, it's hard to ask for much more for a first mock-up -- great job!!

Always thought the area could use a nicer full service grocery store. I had hoped that back in the day Kowalski's would have invested in the area, but perhaps a bit too expensive/upscale?

Trader Jones would seem to fit the demographics of the area - younger 20 somethings, college students, immigrants, etc.

Probably the best place to put this...

The former African cafe on the NW corner of 15th and Nicollet that has been vacant for a while has signs up for a new restaurant coming in, The Nicollet Diner.

Fancy rendering:




Additionally, Glam Doll Donuts will open further down Nicollet next to the Black Forest.

Should there be a Minneapolis General - Restaurant News topic?

Both great wins for Nicollet Ave./Eat Street.

Like the Nicollet Diner concept. Always thought this spot had potential. Not a huge fan of the exterior design, but definitely an improvement to the building's current condition and hopefully will look better once actually completed.

The diner is exciting news for this intersection. Not thrilled with the conceptual rendering...the building looks too plain, but I suspect it will look better in its final design. I think this area is going to see some good improvements over the next several years. The land across the street is for sale. Would be a great location for a nice low to midrise urban infill project.

I think it will do a great job! Hopefully it will be open late... I think this was just some amateurs attempt to make it look like the building... It would be hard to ugly it up...

I'm still trying to figure out if the rendering is a joke or not.

I was just by there the other day and I see paper covering the windows. So soething is going on, what exactly I'm not sure.

I'm still trying to figure out if the rendering is a joke or not.

Boy , I sure hope it's not a detailed rendering. I can't imagine the final result will not show more attention paid to improve the character of the exterior. Otherwise , I think the project is going to have trouble from the get-go, and quickly have an issue of being able to attract people to eat there. The owners of this new establishment have been warned!

Their target customer base must be in the appliance delivery business, Mark Knopfler would be proud.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/dire-straits/ ... id=1536032

Hilarious reference...and a great song!

That computer animation is actually really impressive for 1985. For a graphics comparison, that's the same year NES and Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt came out!

From the staff report on a text amendment to the Nicollet Franklin Pedestrian Overlay district:

Staff conducted an informal survey of existing land uses located within the existing and proposed Nicollet Franklin area PO. This included estimating each building’s existing parking requirement under the current regulations using the gross floor area information of buildings on file with the City, previous land use approval records and building permit information. In addition, staff inventoried existing surface parking stalls in the area using aerial photos and limited site visits. These numbers are estimates based on the information available with limited staff resources; with that caveat staff has estimated that there are approximately 2,400 parking spaces provided within this area, of which approximately 1,400 are needed to meet the existing minimum requirements, leaving an excess of approximately 1,000 stalls.[emphasis mine]

They're banning parking lots as a principal use and removing minimum parking requirements for nonresidential uses. The downside is that any shared parking facility that would be developed would have to be structured, i.e. more expensive. Not sure it would be a good idea to create a big old shared parking lot here anyway, so I don't think that's a big deal.

From the 3/29 City Council Meeting:

Nicollet Franklin Area Pedestrian Oriented Overlay District Regulations (Zoning Code Text Amendment):
Passage of Ordinance amending Title 20, Chapter 551 relating to Zoning Code: Overlay Districts, revising the regulations related to parking lots in the Nicollet Franklin area Pedestrian Oriented Overlay District.
Action Taken: Approved, as amended.

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/meetings/c ... S1P-104510

Anyone know what this is about? Making it easier to develop parking lots or acquiescing to NIMBYs wanting lots of parking?

Here: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 105391.pdf

Bad link, here's the correct one: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 105391.pdf

This looks pretty good, no parking is required for new residential construction, and principal use as a parking lot is also restricted. And renovations are rebuilding has to be at least as many floors as the previous building.