Suburbs - General Topics

[nordeast homer]

In the Target parking lot.

[Mdcastle]

I was at Target last night, and counted 25 cars in the Chick-Fil-A drive thru at 7:00. Also stopped by to check out Total Wine, they've got all the shelving up but not stocked yet. Great Bear Center fixed the flasher on their sign, but the damaged neon is still out. Streetz American Grill is always full of cars it seems. Valleyfair IMAX is totally demolished. 90th street has been resurfaced and the replacement traffic signals at the I-35W ramps are operational.

[Viktor Vaughn]

Twin Cities suburbs are working on their curb appeal
Article by: SHANNON PRATHER , Star Tribune
Coon Rapids among cities brainstorming to stay relevant.
http://www.startribune.com/local/north/233944071.html

[twincitizen]

'Immigrant Suburbs' emerge in latest census sweep: http://www.startribune.com/local/south/236316111.html

Foreign-born populations are moving out of the central cities. Even outer-ring suburbs are becoming more culturally and racially diverse.

[LRV Op Dude]

[Tcmetro]

New Hope redevelopment:

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... na=ind_cre

Last undeveloped parcel at the Arbor Lakes area in Maple Grove to be developed:

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... d-use.html

[twincitizen]

"The Tiburon" apartment project in Golden Valley has been canceled, according to F&C.

Note, this is not one of the three projects proposed in the 394/100/Xenia area, this one was further west near 169/55.

This one was approved back in 2012, and it was never mentioned on this forum (at least by name).

Strib once featured the project in their "Hot Property" series in Oct. 2012: http://www.startribune.com/business/174823281.html


Anyone ever drive by the 394/100/Xenia area to see if any of those three projects are underway? I'm pretty sure the "Three Nine Four" project is still mired in litigation and wouldn't be, but are The Arcata (Colonnade) or The Xenia underway?

[Tcmetro]

Huge update on "Central Park Commons", the large retail development on the NW corner of Pilot Knob and Yankee Doodle:
http://www.cityofeagan.com/images/Commu ... -22-13.pdf

Over at Cedar Grove, a 190-unit apartment building, called Flats at Cedar Grove, has been approved, and the City recently sold the land to the developer.
http://cityofeagan.com/images/Community ... _FINAL.jpg
http://cityofeagan.com/images/Community ... s/A501.pdf

One of the plots of land behind the Cedar Grove parking garage will become a 123-room Hilton Home2 Suites. If the hotel is successful, they may buy the rest of the plot for expansion.
http://cityofeagan.com/images/Community ... r_2013.pdf

The new apartments are located on the 4.8 acre "East End" lot, and the hotel will be on half of the 1.8 acre "Future Development" plot on this map:
http://www.cityofeagan.com/images/Commu ... __2013.pdf

Here's another one I found. A proposal for a 5-story, 250-unit apartment building, 2 data centers, and a medical office building.
http://www.cityofeagan.com/images/Commu ... opment.pdf

[mamundsen]

"The Tiburon" apartment project in Golden Valley has been canceled, according to F&C.

Note, this is not one of the three projects proposed in the 394/100/Xenia area, this one was further west near 169/55.

This one was approved back in 2012, and it was never mentioned on this forum (at least by name).

Strib once featured the project in their "Hot Property" series in Oct. 2012: http://www.startribune.com/business/174823281.html


Anyone ever drive by the 394/100/Xenia area to see if any of those three projects are underway? I'm pretty sure the "Three Nine Four" project is still mired in litigation and wouldn't be, but are The Arcata (Colonnade) or The Xenia underway?

One of the projects is definitely underway. I think it is the Arcata. It's the one that shares the circle entrance with the office building on the NE corner of 394 and Xenia.

[Mdcastle]

Neon "Great Bear Center" sign has been fixed.

[mattaudio]

The strip mall at 90th and Lyndale is classy once again.

[MNdible]

I've been recently doing some commerce on this Bloomington stretch of Lyndale and was surprised that there hasn't been more reinvestment in this area. Seems like it should be a prime opportunity to upgrade and densify, with great freeway access and presumably conducive zoning, but a lot of the area looks dumpy and neglected.

[mattaudio]

Wide stroads and parking lots will do that. Heck, even the Oxboro area near 98th (which I faintly remember being "new" when I was really young) now looks blighted.

[MNdible]

Wow, that stroad response didn't take long at all. It's almost as if you had it pre-written.

[nordeast homer]

The city of Bloomington tries to make it as difficult as possible to do anything positive with commercial properties. Some of the things they will fight building owners over is absolutely absurd. I knew a property owner just north of Great Bear Center that wanted to beautify the boulevard in front of his building and got pushback on everything until he just gave up. He wanted to put in plants (ground hugging plants that would grow no higher than 18'') and he was told that they would be a hinderance to drivers because they could block views... He wanted to put in new lighting and after the 4th revision on type of pole, type of bulb, etc. he gave up. He actually wound up selling the property because the city made things so difficult. Part of the problem was that the city wouldn't tell him what they wanted, they just kept saying, "come back with a different proposal".

[Mdcastle]

I like Lyndale the way it is, since it's not far to drive to get a taco or a headlight bulb bulb and I've never had a problem parking. But probably the answer is there's too much low-end retail and no demand for high-end retail- Byerly's elected to close rather than replace their freezers and Festival, although I've never been there, I guess is a lot more lowbrow. And right now the city is paying attention to the Penn-American and Airport South areas.

Nevertheless my personal fantasy is to replace Clover Center and Freeway Ford with something more vertical with structured parking and the transit station.

I live at 102nd and Pleasant- In the old days we'd walk down to the old Oxboro area with the Sunde Garage and the 1950s buildings. (years later I was acquainted with his grandaughter). I was 11 when they started redeveloping the area so I have good memories of it. I wouldn't call any part of Lyndale dumpy now, at least not compared to what it looked like then.

[mattaudio]

Actually, that Festival may not be a Byerly's, but it's actually really nice. And the Taste of Scandanavia restaurant inside is actually really good... similar prices to Perkins but better food.

[mattaudio]

The problem with the public realm is the reason why this is destined to be dumpy. There's too much built infrastructure and too little land value. Auto-oriented land uses cannot sustain the costs associated with such a road.

http://goo.gl/maps/pzSRw
http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2012 ... v-IA0JdWE8

I say this while reserving my judgment about the actual aesthetic of the land use. Obviously there are a ton of suburban folks like yourself who like being able to drive to places on a commercial strip like Lyndale. That's a preference, and I can't deny it - so please don't think that's why I bring this up. It's merely a matter of the type of road Lyndale is and the value of the land (and the subsequent taxes derived from that value).

[Tcmetro]

I don't think the Oxboro/Lyndale area will ever be high-class for a couple of reasons:

1. Presence of MOA will dominate any high-end retail.
2. Single-family housing is aging and rental housing is generally populated by immigrants and poor people.
3. Lyndale corridor is heavily industrial and service orientated. Industrial and service workers make less than white-collar workers, therefore the retail is going to cater to them.

None of this is inherently bad, lower-income people need a place to live too. The densities are relatively high (on a regional scale) and as a result services that are attractive to lower-income people (like bus services) are decent. Additionally, trip times to the major job centers (494 strip, MOA, Airport, both downtowns) are fairly short.

[Mdcastle]

My sister regularly walks to Festival, and she says it isn't as fancy as Byerly's, but still is nice and she like the bakery. When they built it they originally had delusions they were building Galleria II- after inviting Super Value in they changed their mind because they weren't fancy-pants enough so the gave Byerly's a 20 year sweetheart lease (that they wouldn't extend the same deal was another factor in them leaving, and Kowalski's thought it was too much also).

I'm not sure the CVS was really needed, but it did remove some of the apparently excess low end retail, so there seem to be less vacancies now.