Galtier Plaza

The Most Livable City in America™
mattaudio
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby mattaudio » April 19th, 2016, 8:06 am

But that's a two hour a day premium over driving down an uncongested stretch of I-494. Most people in that situation would a) buy a car to use for commuting or b) get a new job in a different location. Tech workers seem to prefer the latter, since there are plenty of tech jobs. I know an old team I worked with lost about 1/3 of people when the office was relocated from the core city to a suburb, which added 1+ hour of daily drive time for many people.

MNdible
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby MNdible » April 19th, 2016, 8:56 am

If Cray wanted to stay in downtown St. Paul, they definitely could have found space. For example, Ecolabs move into the old St. Paul Cos. space opened up gads of real estate.

Presumably, MOA was a motivated lessor, what with a brand new building sitting completely empty, and Cray was exactly the type of marquee tenant they'd be hoping to attract.

Sidenote: I know Cray has been sold and re-sold a bunch of times -- is there still any meaningful connection (IP, etc.) to the original Cray?

David Greene
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby David Greene » April 19th, 2016, 8:56 am

There's one guy in our group who lives in Cottage Grove and takes the bus downtown. Transit is not a viable option to MOA, so he'd probably have to buy a car, which really stinks. I could see him leaving over that which would be a *big* loss for us.
Not as ideal as going to downtown St. Paul, but he does have several transit options: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Cottage ... 4!3e3!5i13
Yeah...1hr 20min is pretty hard to justify for a commute.

David Greene
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby David Greene » April 19th, 2016, 9:02 am

There isn't 100,000 sq ft of contiguous space in downtown St. Paul suitable of accommodating them?
I don't think that's the only issue. I know what you're all going to say, but...parking. It's true that when GreenTree signed their lease the available office space was hard to find, or so I'm told. That's why when they backed out I was hopeful. But the parking requirement is I think what really made it difficult. That's what the tea leaves tell me anyway. Even today, the parking situation in Cray Plaza is horrendous. Why people can't take a skyway across the street into the Railroad and Bank building...well...

It's possible that the GreenTree space opened up too late.

HiawathaGuy
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby HiawathaGuy » April 19th, 2016, 10:11 am

Yeah...1hr 20min is pretty hard to justify for a commute.
I suppose, but with some perspective, it doesn't seem all that bad. My transit commute is 45 min, and that's just from Minnehaha Park to Richfield (35W/494)... so I thought Cottage Grove to MOA, via downtown St. Paul, in 1hr 20 min, wasn't actually all that bad! I guess it all depends on what you want/need out of a job and the commute.

David Greene
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby David Greene » April 19th, 2016, 10:22 am

Yeah...1hr 20min is pretty hard to justify for a commute.
I suppose, but with some perspective, it doesn't seem all that bad. My transit commute is 45 min, and that's just from Minnehaha Park to Richfield (35W/494)... so I thought Cottage Grove to MOA, via downtown St. Paul, in 1hr 20 min, wasn't actually all that bad! I guess it all depends on what you want/need out of a job and the commute.
You have to think about personal schedules too. Is leaving a 3pm to get home by 4:30-5 possible? If so, what time do you have to get into work and how early do you have to get up in the morning? Sure, we have flexible schedules here but most people do in fact have to be in the office for at least some set window of time due to meetings, etc.

HiawathaGuy
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby HiawathaGuy » April 20th, 2016, 7:23 am

Yeah...1hr 20min is pretty hard to justify for a commute.
I suppose, but with some perspective, it doesn't seem all that bad. My transit commute is 45 min, and that's just from Minnehaha Park to Richfield (35W/494)... so I thought Cottage Grove to MOA, via downtown St. Paul, in 1hr 20 min, wasn't actually all that bad! I guess it all depends on what you want/need out of a job and the commute.
You have to think about personal schedules too. Is leaving a 3pm to get home by 4:30-5 possible? If so, what time do you have to get into work and how early do you have to get up in the morning? Sure, we have flexible schedules here but most people do in fact have to be in the office for at least some set window of time due to meetings, etc.
Again, it's all perspective. I leave my house before 7, so I'm at work before 8. Conversely, I leave work around 5 and don't get home until 6. What I don't know for the specific MOA to Cottage Grove route is the evening express bus times. My point was to again show that contrary to many other suburbs, I was surprised to see the relatively easy commute, via downtown St. Paul. But I would guess most people wouldn't work their lives/schedules around that transit commute.

David Greene
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby David Greene » June 13th, 2016, 9:39 am

Water main break next to the Brooks Building on 5th. Road reportedly "sinking."

mulad
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby mulad » June 13th, 2016, 11:13 am

There's been utility work on Jackson Street for months, which would be a leading candidate for a cause (which I think is partly due the planned bikeway on Jackson and partly just because the area needed work anyway). The heavy rain this morning could have dislodged something too. Definitely a lot of dirt has been washed out from under 5th street, so at least part of it will be undriveable for a while. Not good when 5th is part of the main transit spine through downtown St. Paul.

David Greene
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby David Greene » June 13th, 2016, 11:21 am

Some big slabs of asphalt where workers patched the road over the last year have been dislodged. Gonna take some time to repair. The transit lanes may still be passable but obviously they'll have to do inspections first.

lorwest
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby lorwest » June 14th, 2016, 3:40 pm

Looks like a sinkhole is also opening up along at the parking entrance next to Alary's on 7th Street.

David Greene
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby David Greene » June 14th, 2016, 3:44 pm

5th St. was open this morning, though down to one lane. It had been that way late last week so no real net change.

at40man
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby at40man » August 18th, 2016, 2:36 pm

A long time tenant - Unity One Credit Union - is moving out of Cray Plaza, too. Apparently management wouldn't renew their lease, even for a tenant who has been located there for decades AND with the building being on the brink of being empty. I wonder what they are up to...

David Greene
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby David Greene » August 18th, 2016, 11:06 pm

Management has slowly been kicking people out. Andrea Pizza was kicked out months ago apparently because management felt they weren't paying enough rent. From all accounts management is desperate for money. I had thought maybe they were kicking the restaurants out in order to shut down the food court and not have to pass inspection.

Unity One is a head-scratcher. Maybe they're trying to generate more contiguous office space?

at40man
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby at40man » September 8th, 2016, 4:00 pm

I found out what is up with Unity One's move. Apparently, it was time to renegotiate their lease. The Unity One CEO and branch manager went to meet with Nan. It was a short meeting, to the point where the staff were surprised to see a ashen-faced CEO and manager return after only 20 minutes. She apparently started the meeting by telling them they had 3 months to move out because there was a new tenant that wanted the "entire second floor of the building".

Nan Hynes was not telling the truth.

She's also incredibly dumb to think that shortly after the meeting to think that the Unity One staff wouldn't notice when over the course of a week they recognized employees of Spire credit union wearing their street clothes walk into the space, look around, and leave.

Spire Credit Union has been looking to move from the Alliance Bank Center into Lowertown due to their association with CHS and all the residential activity. Because Spire was willing to sign a longer lease than Unity One usually did, she "gave" them Unity One's space. At no point did she attempt to negotiate the lease, nor inform them that someone else was looking at renting that space, nor even give any consideration that perhaps a long-term tenant might want to stay in the building that they'd been in for the past 20+ years.

I would've been more incredulous of how one could treat a long-term tenant so poorly -- but 10 years ago I worked in the storefront where Dowell Stute is now, and I remember how difficult she was to deal with if we needed anything, how difficult she made it for us to move even when we indicated interest in moving within the building, and frankly her awkward social mannerisms. Not to mention how she has attempted intrude upon spaces multiple times which have existing easements. I know that Airye Condos was prepared to take the management to court back in 2009 when she attempted to cut off their first floor easement from the rest of the Plaza.

David Greene
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby David Greene » September 8th, 2016, 5:12 pm

Yeah, the building has terrible management and it ain't going away. They aren't going to be able to sell it, either. I have not heard anything about a replacement for Cray. That's 2+ complete floors gone.

Mario of Andrea's Pizza told some good stories about his dealings with them.

I would not be surprised to see the building go into foreclosure and/or tax forfeiture.

Didier
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby Didier » September 8th, 2016, 6:45 pm

Sounds like we need someone to make Galtier Plaza Great Again.

at40man
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby at40man » September 9th, 2016, 9:45 am

If I had deep pockets, I would be up to the challenge. I've long had many ideas that could make that building "Great Again". I've always liked it ever since I was a little kid. My mom used to me there for lunch on the rare occasion I got to visit her at work, and I first learned how to swim in that YMCA. So at times it is difficult for me to watch them butcher the place up like they have.

Speaking of Mario and Andrea's, Mario told me years ago that Nan wants to get rid of the food court and has been more-or-less trying to push him out for years. Looks like she succeeded. Same thing happened to Crazy Tacos about 10 years ago. I think they saw the writing on the wall when the food court got walled off from the rest of the building. That made Mario spitting mad. In fact, I would say that if she does attempt to turn the "court space" into a contiguous space, the threat of another lawsuit would come from the condo owners up above whose easement rights would be violated.

I heard one more tidbit of news: the Mall of America is actually paying Cray's penalties to break their lease, which was rumored to cost about $2.2 million. I wonder if the building reverts back to the name "Galtier Plaza" or if they decide to ditch it for something lame like "380 Jackson".

mulad
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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby mulad » October 6th, 2016, 12:23 pm

Unity One moved out last week, and window clings for Spire are going up on that space right now.

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Re: Cray Plaza (née Galtier Plaza)

Postby mulad » December 5th, 2016, 2:02 pm

Spire Credit Union opened in the old Unity One space in Galtier today.


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