urbanMSP

From Hiding in Plain Sight:

1423 Fifth St SE. This brick Italianate-style house has a low-pitched roof and brackets under the cornice, and the remaining original porch columns are chamfered. Aaron V. Talbert built it about 1877. Talbert, a native of Ohio, arrived in St. Anthony sometime in the 1860s. Talbert seems to have had several occupations, including pastor to the First Society of Friends (Quakers), druggist at the firm of Talbert and White, located on East Hennepin, and real estate dealer.

It says the last *sale* was January *1990*.

City records do not list build dates before 1900. To get those you have to read old permit cards, abstracts, and fire insurance maps. Or an informative neighborhood study!

Some revisions: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 110204.pdf

The level of underground parking has been scrapped in favor of more above-ground parking, which will now displace a few units on the first two floors. Reduction in # of units and total parking spaces. Still mentions a car elevator(?) which just sounds crazy expensive.

The drawings have a "car lift" on them as well. I imagine it wouldn't be too much bigger/more expensive than a relatively small freight elevator. *shrug*

And it might actually save money/space by not having to build ramps into the parking levels. Hmm.

Shows the level to which developers are not wanting to provide parking in areas like this - removing underground spaces and ramps to reduce the overhead. The revamped proposal has 41 spots, less than the 59 that would normally be required and 53 actually required with the proximity to transit. I'm guessing without the minimum they might offer even less (but this number is a compromise to show good faith). Imagine how many cool(er?) infill projects like this would exist without any parking mins?

Shows the level to which developers are not wanting to provide parking in areas like this - removing underground spaces and ramps to reduce the overhead.

I don't think that's what it shows.

It shows that developers are loathe to spend more money than they have to, and they'll very carefully run pro formas to figure out how they can maximize their returns. In this case, it showed that they could spend a little more money on a car lift rather than doing excavation and having space-wasting ramps.

^Aren't they one in the same?

Yes, this shows that at the number of spaces provided, their return was maximized by foregoing lease-able space on the second level and providing it for cars instead of going underground. Do you have full confidence that the number of spots they propose per bedroom is the magic number at the intersection of the loss of revenue they could get from renting apartments due to desirability of parking vs marginal cost of adding another space? I'm not convinced.

I believe construction will start on this in the next few weeks.

Yes, the property records explode in 1900. See this movie for a visualization of that + streetcars.
http://www.nexus.umn.edu/Movies-Full/TC ... _movie.m4v

Anybody have any updates for this? As far as I can tell, no staging has begun around the site.

DD lives in one of the brownstones ... In early September they were told to expect construction to start pretty much any time, but no news since then.

Looks like they tore down the house today. Hopefully this means we will start seeing some work on this project soon.

That was a lovely old house. I can't imagine what kind of crap will replace it.

Well, there's a rendering in the link above, so you can imagine it. It doesn't look too bad.

This is one of my favorite infill projects. It makes great use of a underutilized parking lot and small house. And most importantly, it keeps AND renovates those 3 brownstones that face 15th. Those have so much charm and character right on 15th, glad to see them stay. I also like how the majority of the units will be 4 bedroom units. That is the best part of living on campus, is being able to live with 3 of your buddies.

I can't believe I just found this one. I was actually walking along 15th last week managed to see a construction worker through the alleys. I'd always thought those alleys could be better utilized, and when I saw him in legitimately had this very idea. So I'm super psyched to see this one go up. I'm a big fan of incorporating the existing buildings (which could use just a bit of work on the front). I think this'll be a great project. Prime location, much better character than The Mammoth Marshall.

P1260084 by UrbanMSP, on Flickr

Not much has changed, but I figured an updated pic is nice:


501 15th Ave SE Mar19_2014 by RailBaronYarr, on Flickr

Drove by around noon. This appears to be an all concrete construction. Should be a solid project. They are on the 3rd floor I think.