urbanMSP

Bear Cave? Isn't that a very niche target demographic?

As long as the beer is better than LTD it should be a welcome addition.

Hah, that name does seem to set its sights on a particular demographic.

With LTD Brewing, Mainstreet Bar and Grill, 819 Pub, Cream and Amber, and Bear Cave Brewing, Mainstreet is getting nice string for a pub crawl.

I wonder if this will mean Mainstreet has more of something than it does of antique stores

Bear Cave? Isn't that a very niche target demographic?

The EagleBolt was doing fine. Maybe the bears are hibernating in the suburbs now?

Whoa. A proposal is being readied for 752 units and 11,000 sq ft of commercial at Blake and Excelsior.

It’s in the June 16th agenda packet.


https://www.hopkinsmn.com/AgendaCenter/ ... ?html=true

Love to see it!

Checks all the boxes but one; over provision of parking. 752 units, 893 parking stalls.

Am I naive enough to expect any different for this suburban parcel? No, I'm not. It's certainly a project worth supporting. It looks like the developer is quite sensitive to issues of urban design, stormwater, and retail. But we should be clearheaded that developments like this do not have the same effect on ridership as developments with lower parking ratios.

When the SWLRT platform is basically going to be on the property line... it feels like a max parking ratio should be 1:1.

Combined this with the already existing apartments and the cold storage site and the area around the Blake station might end up being the densest part of Hopkins, and I don't think its in danger of being reduced given its a decent distance away from any single family homes, but I could be wrong. Also any idea if there are going to be any affordable units in the projects? Cause looking at it, it might end up being comparable to the moline in terms of price per unit.

I agree about way too much parking.

But when Hennepin County has too many lanes on adjacent roadways (Blake & Excelsior) with no dedicated bus lanes, this area will continue to be all about cars, much like the next station down at 36th & Wooddale. High density, but fast, wide lanes for cars and lots of parking.

After further inspection, a couple more things:

1. “Bicycle friendly”. Why not “bicycle/ped/transit prioritized”?
2. Seems a shame there’s going to be so little retail. I get that Site C doesn’t need retail, but the frontage on Excelsior & Blake should have it. I know, I know: “retail is dead”. But is it, really? Especially at such a prominent corner as this, next to (walkable) an LRT station?

OK, one more thing.
3. Interesting how, a century ago, the Como Harriet Streetcar line went west past France Ave. to Brookside Ave. and then connected to a line that went further west, south of Meadowbrook Golf Course and The Blake School, which is just south of this new development, and west out to Lake Minnetonka (Excelsior?). We’re restoring transit & density to an area that was established because of rail (born as West Minneapolis). Now if only we made transit the dominant method of traveling here, instead of a minor accessory to 4-lane county roads.

Regarding the retail, this is not a retail-absent area, there is an abundance of retail serving a neighborhood node, especially low income apartment renters and immigrants right across the street. This eliminates ... all of what’s left of it. Except one Somali restaurant. The park and ride eliminated the other tiny strip retail.

It’s going to make the existing residents increasingly car dependent.

Yeah, while the strip mall setup right now is very run down, ugly and covered in parking lots it is flush with small businesses serving area residents. When I lived over here all that retail was pretty heavily used by people in the adjacent apartments up and down Blake. With light rail coming its really unacceptable to be removing so much retail. Adding retail for its own sake isn't really the best, but demolishing tons of affordable and *filled* retail space and not replacing it is much worse.

Business Journal finally picked up on the Blake Road Station development.

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... -line.html

Hopkins is asking for public input on the Cold Storage site, they have released a draft Development Vision.

http://www.hopkinsmn.com/165/325-Blake- ... orage-Site

Nextdoor post reporting that McCoys, the gas station behind/next to Pizza Lucé, closes tomorrow permanently as the owner has sold the property to a developer.