urbanMSP

There are plenty of urban churches that are surrounded by towers. Most famous being St. Patrick's in Manhattan. But there's also St. Olaf in Mpls, or all the churches near the Fitzgerald in St. Paul. I think it's a cool look in a city.

Maybe I've just missed some stuff because it wasn't controversial, but has the HPC ever voted to demolish anything?

Well, most recently in the area they voted to allow demolition of Superior Plating, which some people on this site thought should be saved. Didn't they also vote to demolish the Totino's building as well? Usually the only time there is ever a lot of controversy is when they try to protect a structure, because it goes against the pro-development bias of this city.

I'm glad the Council can overrule them, or the city might as well be frozen in carbonite

I don't think anybody could ever accuse Minneapolis of being frozen in carbonite. That's the whole issue. We've lost so much that we need to be especially careful over what remains.

As far as the church, I think as long as the bulk of the building is oriented more to the Hennepin/2nd corner (the current parking lot) it won't be too affected. It is very near the downtown of a major city, after all. It's unreasonable to expect it to be the tallest thing in its area.

Plus, the clergy house (or whatever) provides a nice little buffer on the NW side of OLoL. Side note, my wife and I got hitched there.

Adam Voge of Finance & Commerce shared some interesting twit-bits from the locked story:

https://twitter.com/VogeMN

Notables from @BusinessMN story on #nyerise: 175-250 units expected, est. $60m for 20 stories, at least 3 developers pitched on idea.

Developer says Nye's would have to come down, but @Jacob_Frey is "not there yet" with that idea

And, as always, Jacob Frey is a veritable quote machine:

.@Jacob_Frey on #nyerise: "It’s difficult to get excited about an upcoming birthday when your mom just died."

#nyerise for favorite hashtag of the month.

The NyeRise is beautiful.

Voge: #nyrise developer: If Nye's bldg must stay, "we don't have a project."

I finally got around to looking it up, and this site is much smaller than I would have guessed. The whole site doesn't appear to be much bigger than the Marq4 site -- only 22,000 sf.

A crack team is being assembled to find and follow MNdible on Twitter

So now that this area is really starting to heat up while the U of M and Uptown are slowing down, is it maybe time to make a forum section for Northeast?

Agree!

It does seem strange that North Loop is in the downtown forum, but DTNE is in the General forum. This is closer to DT than the far stretches of NL. And can we change the thread to #NyeRise?

Good point about the orientation. When they built Riverplace they oriented the stairs to rise in front the the church front door and made an intimate but kind of spectacular little vista.

the pro-development bias of this city.

Lolwut. Between the save Dinkytown wingnuts, the LHENA, people living in the core city who pretend they live in a village, and the refusal to build taller than IDS because of some misplaced nostalgia and Midwestern conservatism, I'm not sure how you can say that with a straight face.

Lolwut. Between the save Dinkytown wingnuts, the LHENA, people living in the core city who pretend they live in a village

How many times in recent history have any of those groups gotten their way? How many city council races did they win a year ago? None and none. Dinkytown Hotel situation excepted, since it sounds like we'll all be happier if the end result is a taller hotel building on the parking lot in back, saving the existing building(s). In reality, the anti-development types make a lot of noise at the neighborhood level, but don't have any leverage at City Hall.

and the refusal to build taller than IDS because of some misplaced nostalgia and Midwestern conservatism

That's not a real thing, at least not anymore. Tepid demand for new office space is the sole factor preventing something taller than IDS. No one is "refusing" anything, unless you're counting the refusal to build a million SF of unneeded office space.

There are NIMBYs everywhere, and they're always crazy. I don't think it's possible to really compare NIMBYs between cities without being neck deep in politics in both cities, but from what I see on Twitter I don't see any reason to think that our locals are particularly out there in comparisons.

Remember the loudness of their voice is not representative of their base of support.

https://twitter.com/DanielKayHertz/stat ... 5436787712

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 49121.html
From what I've read there isn't much that could convince the developer to save the older buildings on this site.The owner is quoted as saying that "the buildings are really run down" and that it would be far too expensive to rehab them. It sounds like they would try to pay homage to them in the new development.
Why not try a hotel/condo package on this site?

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 49121.html
From what I've read there isn't much that could convince the developer to save the older buildings on this site.The owner is quoted as saying that "the buildings are really run down" and that it would be far too expensive to rehab them. It sounds like they would try to pay homage to them in the new development.
Why not try a hotel/condo package on this site?

What developer is going to come out and say "we could totally rehab these buildings and turn a profit but we will make more money if we tear them down and redevelop"? I think anything a developer says about the condition of old buildings that they want to demolish should be taken with a grain of salt.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 49121.html
From what I've read there isn't much that could convince the developer to save the older buildings on this site.The owner is quoted as saying that "the buildings are really run down" and that it would be far too expensive to rehab them. It sounds like they would try to pay homage to them in the new development.
Why not try a hotel/condo package on this site?

The question is does the new project improve upon what is being replaced? If the developer proposes something bold with character that makes a strong contribution to the vitality of the neighborhood, I doubt there will be less concern about the loss of Nye's. If they propose something mediocre and bland it will be yet another loss for the community and further sanitize Minneapolis into the feel of a nondescript sunbelt city.

I hope you didn't read that as though I would like the buidlings gone. I still think they should build in the parking lot area and try to incorporate the 2 buildings. I would think you could make them into some apartments or even create some commercial office space in them. The exteriors don't look that bad, it's hard for me to imagine that the interiors are as bad as described.
I'm guessing that the ROI for the developer is just that much higher with a cleared lot and new development rather than trying to deal with exiting structures and/or any historic preservation.