urbanMSP

A new $62 million, 254 unit, 30,000 square foot Lunds grocery store in downtown St. Paul. The city of St. Paul took over as developer. Designed by BKV Architects. Weis Builders is the general contractor. Financing rece

To continue,

Financing was recently finalized with a mortgage backed by HUD. Construction could begin very soon. The project is expected to take 18 months to build.

*Just recently I've personally seen movers removing the furnishings from the former sales office building.

Actually might happen?!?!

With the Farmer's Market Apartments leasing up in less than 4 months there should be no problem for them to get started on this building. The mortgage guarentee is what has been holding things up. The fact that Lunds is leasing space is the real catalyst for this project. This will make DTWN St. Paul a more desirable place to live. From what I have heard they should be in the Ground just after the 4th of July if not sooner. It will be kinda like the Buzza in Uptwon where they will have a demolition faze before the really works starts.

Yeah, HUD was really the biggest delay to getting this project going. I've heard groundbreaking could be anytime between June 15-July 15. Demolition of the old Public Service Building and preserving (by means of bracing the walls) the south and part of the west wall should take approximately four months.

Equipment and preparations for the demolition of the Public Service Building is set to begin on Monday, the 25th. Notices are getting posted in nearby buildings soon to be effected by the construction, including mine.

Glad to heard things are a go. Can't wait for it to get up and filled and show those council people that voted no that they don't know a thing about redevelopment. Downtown people will have the Lunds close by!

I saw some workers earlier today around the building. So things are definitely a go.

Great - this was starting to become an eyesore as it stood mostly vacant. What kind of construction timeline are we looking at given all the false starts with this project? Also the block accross the street(Robert) could be ripe for something if this project is a success.

The notice in my building stated the city will be providing upcoming schedules and so forth. I'll post when I hear more.

As far as I know, demolition will take approximately four months. They're going to brace the south and part of the the west wall to incorporate it into the new building. After demo and digging the basement level it should take about another 12 months to build the rest of the building. Not sure when we can expect Lunds to be officially opened, perhaps late '13 or early '14.

A ring of jersey barriers is going up today around the block.

Public Service Building, future Penfield/Lunds building by spectre 000, on Flickr

http://www.minnpost.com/two-cities/2012 ... ld-project

"...Week 1 (This Week):
• Preliminary work, and site clearing and abatement begin.

Weeks 2 & 3
•Complete abatement, remove skyway, complete perimeter fencing and gates, install temporary steel footings and start temporary steel.

Week 4
•Temporary steel installation and demolition work to begin within the building."

You better be posting frequent updates! You have the perfect view of it...

Work is progressing nicely. They've been removing the exterior of the former sales building, excavation of the parking lot has begun, and they've started on the roof of the skyway.


DSCN1216 by spectre 000, on Flickr

Still not sold on saving the facade but too late now. Quite a few new buildings in your photo that have sprung up in the last 10-15 yrs. State office buildings and Regions. Light rail can be seen also. Gas station location just screams for a developement. Wouldn't be surprised if something is proposed in the next couple of years. The Penfield will give this area a much needed facelift/upgrade.

The sales office building was getting demolished this morning. Just a pile of debris now.

Some new renders released. Seems they won't be preserving as much of the facade on the west side of the Public Service Building as they originally intended.









Also two mobile cranes are now on 10th Street, looks like they are about to remove the skyway.

They've removed the skyway over 10th Street today. The next step is placing the steel bracings around the facade. They've been pretty active inside as well. On the north side of the building there's a huge hole that they've opened up and have started clearing out the interior.


DSCN1233 by spectre 000, on Flickr


Also here's a link to my photo set of the construction. There are several more shots of the cranes in action taking down the skyway.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33319414@N ... 578706146/

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3qwIswXO9g[/youtube]