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Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: August 19th, 2018, 7:05 pm
by BigIdeasGuy
I stoped and looked around the stadium for a few minutes this evening here are a few things I noticed.

1. They only have 2 large white wave pipes left to install and both of those appear to be waiting for some work on the press box/premium seating to be finished up.
2. The brewery/restaurant/bar on the north end of the stadium has Kasota stone facing the field and looks really nice
3. They have the beautiful peoples parking lot in the SE corner of the site almost done. I know it sucks but I think most people expected that to be the case even under the most optimistic redevelopment case, I think the bigger concern is that nothing appears to be the remotely close to being announced for Snelling and University.
4. They have finally started hide/removing/tying in those ugly tabs on the exterior and it looks a million times better, if you are looking for them you can see a slightly darker spot where they were but it still has a clean look.
5. The backlighting of the facade needs some fine tuning to make sure it looks more distributed across panels
6. Big Top Liquors has taken over the old Perkins building. YEA Big Top Liquors! BOO tear down the building!
7. I'm not sure of the sections of PTFE are able to get any closer together over time or if they are locked in place. I attached a photo hopefully someone who know more about PTFE and construction will be able to figure something out from the photo

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: August 20th, 2018, 10:26 am
by karlshea
Totally just a guess, but I bet there's like a plastic cover or something for those seams they just haven't installed yet.

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: September 18th, 2018, 5:27 pm
by Rube Dali
Speaking of Big Top, their old building has been completely demolished from what I was able to see this afternoon.

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 22nd, 2018, 7:36 am
by cooperrez
Sod is going in today. You can watch it on the interior camera, https://www.mnufc.com/stadium/stream/interior

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 22nd, 2018, 10:41 am
by karlshea
Direct link to stream


Was watching when they were zooming the camera around:

Image

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 22nd, 2018, 11:57 am
by cooperrez
Oooh, nice catch of the close up! I'm almost embarrassed at how giddy I am with these images.

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 22nd, 2018, 7:40 pm
by Qhaberl
Going to be completely honest. I’m just not that impressed with the stadium. A friend and I went and walked around it the other day. It just seems so suburban and cut off from all the urban amenities. I know the idea is that the area around the stadium will be built up, I just don’t know if I see that happening anytime soon.


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Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 22nd, 2018, 8:24 pm
by mplsjaromir
I gotta agree with Qhaberl. It feels like a suburban stadium in a huge parking lot next to a major freeway. The least insipided local stadium since metrodome.

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 22nd, 2018, 11:24 pm
by Didier
Yeah drive through Plymouth and every other building looks just like this. God!

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 23rd, 2018, 7:27 am
by bubzki2
I think it's a tastefully-designed building that isn't done yet. Landscaping and surroundings will also make a big difference. This looks amazing at night. Compares favorably with other MLS stadiums I've seen.

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 23rd, 2018, 7:57 am
by cooperrez
When this site was chosen, my first reaction was that it will feel suburban, I mean it's on a strip mall. A lot of the existing infrastructure is suburban. I think the only Culver's in either Minneapolis or St. Paul is right there. I like Culver's btw, but you typically only find them in the suburbs. And I was weary of how much transformation could really take place there. I was hoping for a downtown location in either St. Paul or Minneapolis, but that didn't happen. I am trying to hold judgement on the stadium itself until this first phase is complete. The development around the stadium is going to take time, we all know that. I am hopeful that some significant transformation does take place.

As a soccer fan, the stadium really excites me. It's a little smaller than I was hoping for, but the intimacy of the place is going to add to the atmosphere. Seeing the green grass go in really brings the stadium together. I'm going to have to get my hands on a couple of tickets for the seats right down on the field level at least once in my life.

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 23rd, 2018, 8:09 am
by Qhaberl
Just out of curiosity, how many parking spaces is the stadium being allowed? Where exactly are these parking spaces in relation to the stadium?


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Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 23rd, 2018, 8:20 am
by Qhaberl
https://www.stpaul.gov/sites/default/fi ... -24-16.pdf

Here are the site plans for the stadium. This kind of answered my question from above.

A few thoughts:

1. It would have been nice if the two surface parking lots immediately to the West of the stadium where underground. Due to the surface lots immediate adjacency to Snelling Avenue, they would have been great for mixed use development.

2. I do like all the plaza space in the site plan. I think it’s going to look really cool.


3. L I feel the same way about the parking lot on the south west corner of the stadium. I think it would have been much better to put that lot underground.

By no means am I trying to be negative about the project. I really do hope it helped transform the area into a pedestrian/walkable community.




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Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 23rd, 2018, 8:30 am
by cooperrez
As far as the surface parking goes, I'm pretty sure that is just using the existing space for now and it will eventually be replaced by mixed use buildings, most likely with underground parking in some of the buildings.

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 23rd, 2018, 9:00 am
by alexschief
That the stadium might remain amidst a sea of "temporary" surface lots is one of my great fears.

That said, there is a master plan for development and a master developer (Mortenson) already selected. It's in nobody's financial interest to keep the rest of the site undeveloped. I'm overall optimistic that when the stadium is complete, we will see development on the surrounding property, starting with that Snelling-University corner. With the Green Line, A-Line, central location, and proximity to so many colleges and universities, it's a location that has a lot going for it.

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 23rd, 2018, 5:47 pm
by EOst
Considering the stadium was built at McGuire's considerable expense for a soccer team that doesn't make a ton of money, I don't see how the venture pencils out if the surrounding land stays parking lots.

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 23rd, 2018, 7:35 pm
by BigIdeasGuy
Since the day they announced the location of the stadium I've thought that the success or failure of the stadium won't be judged on if the team can bring 20,000 people to Midway 16-20 times a year, they will, no problem. The success or failure is ultimately going to be judged on the development surrounding the stadium. During the being of stadium construction the surrounding property and building rights bounced around and I believe ended up with a Milwaukee based developer. I believe Dr. McGuire now own the property and is partnering with Mortenson as someone mentioned above.

What Dr. McGuire, Mortenson and the city need to do is find an anchor tenant to kick start everything else, someone who will bring a 1000+ good paying jobs to Midway 9-5 Monday through Friday. (I've heard from people I trust who are close to the team that Prime Therapeutics was close to deal but Eagan came in late with a sweetheart deal to keep them). The problem is those type of deals don't grow in trees around here and I doubt a firm located outside the 494-694 loop would want to relocate to dead center of it. I believe in the leadership of the organizations to get that done because it's in everyone's best interest to get that done, they just have to find the right employer which is difficult.

Full Disclosure up front I'm a MNUFC season ticket holder and supporter so do with that what you will.

Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 24th, 2018, 6:21 am
by Qhaberl
Once they do start developing the surrounding parking lot, I wonder how much of a tantrum the neighborhood will throw. Considering that during the construction process, people will have to park and other places. Hopefully as they develop the parking lots, the nearby retail establishment well let people utilize their parking lot on game day. Ideally, a large majority of people take transit to the games, but I’m sure you will still get a crazy amount of people that feel they must drive.


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Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 24th, 2018, 6:29 am
by Qhaberl
As unpopular is the idea of maybe, I was kind of hoping that this site would be pitch to Amazon. I know that Amazon was looking for a site that was highly transit connected.

Not sure if the piece of land would have even been big enough for Amazon, but it definitely would have brought in hundreds of employees. It would’ve been a nice way to kick start development.

The dream master plan, which I totally understand is just someone’s vision, indicates some pretty tall office towers just east of Snelling Avenue. As was already stated above, without a major anchor tenant, I don’t see those massive office project taking place on speculation.

Don’t quote me, but I believe the master plan calls for around 450 to 600 residential units. And I always thought that number was kind of low, given the close proximity to public transit. I think it would be kind of cool if we could get a nice condominium complex. I’m thinking something on the scale of legacy condominiums. With much better design and ground floor retail.






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Re: Soccer Stadium and Snelling-Midway Development

Posted: October 24th, 2018, 8:06 am
by VacantLuxuries
As unpopular is the idea of maybe, I was kind of hoping that this site would be pitch to Amazon. I know that Amazon was looking for a site that was highly transit connected.
Amazon was looking for a sucker. Seattle's economy is too diversified for Amazon to bully the city around, so they went shopping for a city that would give them the moon. They're going to either land in a city that concedes everything, or whichever one they picked out before someone had this Golden Ticket idea in the first place. Probably a DC suburb.