Wooddale Station Area / PLACE - St. Louis Park

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nordeast homer
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby nordeast homer » May 11th, 2018, 12:37 pm

Good for everybody!! I can't tell you how many times I've seen not only cars not looking for cyclists, but cyclists ignoring cars and blowing through the intersection. Can't believe I haven't seen someone killed there.

bapster2006
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby bapster2006 » May 11th, 2018, 2:34 pm

A tunnel will be awesome. Yeah, I can’t believe the bikes that ride into traffic without looking. It is simple physics. If I and my bicycle weigh 225 pounds and a car weighs 4000 pounds I will lose.

rmc
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby rmc » August 7th, 2018, 1:51 pm

Just messaged SLP about the Via (Place) development, as not much has happened over the summer.
City Staff met with the PLACE team earlier this week, and they are still on track for the development. The Federal Tax Bill that was passed at the end of 2017 caused a hiccup in their financing for the project (they were using tax exempt bonds and tax credits – which lost considerable value due to the tax bill). PLACE is in the process of finalizing other financing, and anticipate construction to begin early October.
It will be nice to look at more than a pile of dirt.

Anondson
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Anondson » October 17th, 2018, 5:22 pm

The PLACE proposal is about to die because of the struggle to find funding since the tax overhaul.

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... d-use.html

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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Anondson » October 31st, 2018, 6:11 pm

I heard from the head of PLACE that they have assembled their necessary funding and are ready to begin Phase 1 this year and Phase 2 in July next year.

However because of the tax overhaul that interrupted funding, then another change that reinstated the tax credits, such a lengthy delay was caused that the council has gotten itchy feet.

November 5 the council is set to vote on cancelling the entire thing and putting the whole site out for a rebid to any developer.

It’s understandable I guess that faith in the unorthodox process getting this done has gotten the city council to want the plug pulled, but after all the years of process and meetings with neighbors getting to a good design, it’d be a huge waste. Not to mention Met Council affordable and TOD grants for it.

Anyway, I likely can’t make the vote to speak for it. But I wanted to get the word out, if anyone reading thinks this is a good design for a SWLRT station to have a couple hundred affordable housing units adjacent to the station, come to SLP city council on November 5th to voice support.

MNdible
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby MNdible » November 1st, 2018, 9:34 am

This is a very cool project, but I've also always thought that it would be a miracle if they could thread the needle -- so many unique design ideas, interconnected pieces, and super-complicated funding sources.

People wonder why developers tend to do the same-old 5+1 stick frame model over and over, and the reason is that a bank will give you a loan for it.

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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Anondson » November 1st, 2018, 10:08 am

They first proposed a 14 story, neighborhood anger got them to re-propose a 10 story. More neighborhood anger. The city council then told them the council could get a six story through.

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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Anondson » November 7th, 2018, 4:07 pm

The city council unanimously voted for bond issuance and unanimously for moving the continuance date to December 31st.

It’s going to happen.

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jtoemke
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby jtoemke » November 8th, 2018, 7:41 am

That's great - GO SLP!

NickP
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby NickP » November 8th, 2018, 10:55 am

Which version is going to happen? Based on previous posts it looks like there are a couple. Thanks in advance for the clarification 😊

Anondson
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Anondson » November 8th, 2018, 9:38 pm

I haven’t seen anything change from the final plans posted above, except that the bio-digester might have been scratched.

https://www.stlouispark.org/home/showdocument?id=1196

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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby NickP » November 9th, 2018, 7:17 pm

Nice! Thank Anondson.

Oreos&Milk
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Oreos&Milk » November 11th, 2018, 11:38 pm

I haven’t seen anything change from the final plans posted above, except that the bio-digester might have been scratched.

https://www.stlouispark.org/home/showdocument?id=1196

I like it except for the solar canopy. Likely the space is to small to fit in a few townhouses, but that space could be better utilized. A small dog park, retail space, heck even a gas station wouldn't be as bad. Could be a great place for bike riders to stop for a quick break (add a water fountain, bike repair station stand, and maybe a few picnic tables or benches. And better yet a small shop or two, or a few vending machines at least. Heck even a community garden. Yes, I know a green house next to it but still seems like it's a dead space. At least maybe put car parking under the solar canopy and give the space more function at least.

Multimodal
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Multimodal » November 12th, 2018, 8:49 am

It shows it as car parking in the document. It’s basically “green” surface parking. Who knows, as cars become less dominant, it could be a covered public space some day, for a Christmas Market, farmers market, that sort of thing.

Really impressive design overall.

I like how the woonerf doesn’t have trees or greenery, so it’s more like a European plaza which can be infinitely repurposed.

Multimodal
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Multimodal » November 12th, 2018, 1:53 pm

And I’m guessing new gas stations arent being built anywhere within the 494/694 loop.

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Tiller
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Tiller » November 12th, 2018, 8:50 pm

New gas stations happen occasionally (rarely?) inside the loop. A new holiday gas station was built after MNDOT put in a diamond interchange at Hwy 36/English St. Probably not many other recent examples.

Multimodal
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Multimodal » November 12th, 2018, 10:02 pm

OK, you got me. A few at the edges.

Edina lost one recently. No one cares. Not a great land use.

Gas stations, muffler shops, oil change shops … all fading away. Maybe some tire shops & car washes will remain after The Great Electrification. We’re at peak gas auto; it’s all downhill from here.

Seems like a lot of parking at PLACE, especially for a development literally at a rail station. But overall I look forward to it being built. That area has densified a lot in 10 years, and this will crown it.

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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Anondson » November 12th, 2018, 10:20 pm

Via (the development) by P.L.A.C.E. (the nonprofit developer) had to get city approval for being far underparked. 300 apartments and over a 100 hotel rooms, plus the stores and live-work artist units.

They have come up with programming to recruit local-SLP-artists who commit to not owning cars and receive rent discounts for it, recruit from local companies employees to live here and setting up shuttle buses, getting hourly car rental companies to position vehicles near, and many other incentives had been discussed at the public meetings for neighborhood feedback.

My understanding was that even that parking lot with solar above added to the total parking spaces is way below the city requirement for parking for that many units of multifamily housing. I wouldn’t be surprised that moving some parking to that awkward parcel as surface parking made it possible to keep so many affordable units in the project.

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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby Multimodal » November 13th, 2018, 5:40 am

Very encouraging. Sounds like St. Louis Park really did the right things here regarding parking at Via.

Now that I think about it, this area is really centrally located. Within a mile to the east & south is a major gym, brewery, parks, Excelsior & Grand (Trader Joe’s, Fresh Thyme, cafe/bar/coffee shops, retail), Cedar Lake Trail, Target, & Lunds & Byerly’s. To the north & west is old downtown SLP, schools, library, & more retail.

An on-street bike network will be crucial here. Their Connect The Park project has done a lot so far; next year will connect the eastern/southern parts.

bapster2006
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Re: Wooddale Station Area / PLACE Proposal - St. Louis Park

Postby bapster2006 » January 7th, 2019, 8:33 am

The leasing phone number is up for Via and it looks like real work is starting.


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