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Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: September 12th, 2013, 11:38 am
by Nathan
Looks like there is a private development planning to create a pretty decent mixed use tower in DT Fargo. A new tallest for the state. Seems like a lot is going on in their DT, pretty cool for a smaller CBD that has a lot of potential. Probably a good tell tale of the re-urbanization going on all over the country.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/411511/

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: September 12th, 2013, 11:33 pm
by Silophant
Cool! I drove back from Montana over spring break a couple years ago, and remember snickering that a) the Capitol is the tallest building in North Dakota, and b) it's shorter than Moos Tower. This looks really good, and has a restaurant on the top floor, always a good bet for the tallest building in a state. (Ahem, Minnesota)

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: September 13th, 2013, 9:53 am
by Tom H.
Well, my home state (the other Dakota) has, as it's largest building, and 11-story, 174-footer. It had previously been a grain elevator at about 200 feet, but that got torn down.

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: September 13th, 2013, 7:03 pm
by mulad
Matt Yglesias of Slate posted about this for some reason. Well, his reason is that the thing is taller than anything in Washington, D.C., but I think there are a lot of relatively small places that have fairly tall stuff (like the old plus-shaped Mayo Clinic building in Rochester). Fargo has a certain ring to it, though.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/201 ... lding.html

I'm a little dubious of the idea that the oil boom in the western part of the state affects Fargo all that directly, though I've been amazed at the number of hotels popping up near the I-29/I-94 interchange when I've visited.

...and at this point I think I've written more about this than Yglesias did.

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: September 13th, 2013, 8:05 pm
by MNdible
He wrote just enough for City Pages to turn it into click bait.

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: September 13th, 2013, 9:53 pm
by FISHMANPET
He wrote about it as part of his battle against the Height of Buildings act in DC. I think the idea here is that even bumfart Fargo can get tall buildings and we can't. Or maybe that the market is such that even Fargo can build tall buildings, so why are we prevented from doing so in DC?

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: September 14th, 2013, 12:52 am
by Silophant
Well, my home state (the other Dakota) has, as it's largest building, and 11-story, 174-footer. It had previously been a grain elevator at about 200 feet, but that got torn down.
That seems strange. I realize that South Dakota has a lot of room to sprawl, but it seems like a city of 154,000 should have more than a single 11-story building, Even Mankato had two of them.

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: September 14th, 2013, 9:36 am
by stock345
Many larger cities in the Dakotas along the red river valley don't build too far up because the soil can't handle supporting large structures. (Unless built to support it through costly investments in foundation work upon construction)

http://failures.wikispaces.com/Minard+H ... e+Collapse

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: September 14th, 2013, 10:35 am
by Tom H.
Soil stability is not an issue in Sioux Falls. I'd agree that the skyline there is undersized for its population, but then again, Sioux Falls is pretty much a poster child for sprawl. Part of the reason may be that Sioux Falls managed doesn't have any freeways that go right into the city center - so while it doesn't have the height of many similarly-sized cities, the downtown is relatively well-preserved and connected to the surrounding neighborhoods.

(Sorry for partially hijacking the thread.)

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: September 21st, 2013, 7:52 am
by mulad
F&C says that the $1.8 billion flood diversion project for the Red River near Fargo has reached the "FONSI" stage for their environmental work. They're going to build a 36-mile channel around the city. Part of the article is based on this press release from the Army Corps of Engineers office in St. Paul, which says it will protect a 70-square-mile area and around 200,000 people.

That cost seems quite high to me, considering the transit projects that have to jump through hoops elsewhere, but I can see how the benefit/cost calculation for a flood project is considerably different than for a rail line or whatever.

Here's the main page for the diversion project: http://www.fmdiversion.com/

They're planning to begin construction next summer (2014).

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: October 8th, 2013, 2:38 pm
by Azel
Plans for 900-apartment units on a 150-acre site in South Fargo http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/84716/ seems to have been scaled back http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/414155/ "The current plan would also include about 100 single-family homes and multifamily zoning that would allow for up to 200 apartment units." There are also rumors of a SuperTarget, but no tenants are signed yet, the story said.

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: March 19th, 2014, 9:30 am
by go4guy
Looks like the FAA thinks the new tower (less than 300 ft) will cause problems landing at Hector International. How can this be a serious concern? It is not even close to the flight path. They must not be familiar with the new runway at MSP. And what did they think would be built downtown when they chose the runway direction when it was built.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id ... roup/News/

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: March 8th, 2016, 8:32 am
by Tiller
Being in the Fargo area to put metal on Bobcat's new HQ, I'm amazed by the amount of multifamily housing here, as well as the aforementioned hotels. While it's still particularly auto-dominated, the density is promising.

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: March 8th, 2016, 9:15 am
by Tiller
Some pics of the HQ.

http://m.imgur.com/a/KKYfg

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: March 8th, 2016, 10:30 am
by VacantLuxuries
Also that new tower is set to start construction this fall. Guess it'll be time to visit the alma mater.

http://www.inforum.com/business/3937484 ... ice-tenant

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: March 16th, 2016, 11:34 am
by mattaudio
Moorhead commits more money in tax fight with Menards
The company has argued that its Moorhead store, which produces about $200,000 in property taxes each year, is overvalued.
http://www.inforum.com/news/3986718-moo ... ht-menards

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: March 16th, 2016, 9:30 pm
by go4guy
The multi family development in Fargo is absolutely crazy. Haven't been near downtown in awhile, so not sure how many apartment projects are there. But South Fargo is just booming with apartments. Especially out by the new Sanford hospital near Veterans Blvd.

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: March 16th, 2016, 9:38 pm
by mister.shoes
I grew up in north-central ND and my parents are from MN/MI, so I've got 30+ years of driving through Fargo on the way to family things under my belt. The little white faux-grain elevator visitors center used to sit all by itself along 94 just west of 29. Now it's completely and utterly surrounded by apartments and townhomes and big box commercial. Growth of 40k+ (~56%!) since 1990? That's bonkers.

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: May 9th, 2016, 11:07 am
by VacantLuxuries
Was looking up more about Fargo development and stumbled upon this:

http://www.inforum.com/news/3932213-dev ... rking-lots

Great that they're replacing parking lots, but this is what caught my attention:
The two buildings, each seven to eight stories, would be connected by a skyway for both pedestrians and automobiles, which allows the two buildings to share one automobile entrance.
I didn't think you could make skyways worse, but Fargo apparently figured it out.

Re: Fargo/Moorhead

Posted: May 9th, 2016, 11:11 am
by Nathan
I mean it's weird, but that's also less curb cuts.