Target Field Station (the Hotel) & Target Field Station (the Station)

[min-chi-cbus]

I'm a bit confused....I thought this project still lacked financing and was still being debated, yet it's under construction? Is there a 2nd part of this project that is being questioned??

[mattaudio]

I thought the current part was the parking ramp, plaza, new LRT station and viaduct.... I thought any heavy rail platform changes, train shed, or other station building on the north side of 5th St was going to be in scope for a future project.

[trkaiser]

I crawled around this construction site a bit this afternoon and posted some construction updates here:
http://tomabouttown.wordpress.com/2012/ ... ge-update/

[min-chi-cbus]

Boy there is just NOTHING North/Northwest of this area! It's too bad there is a garbage incinerator right there too because I don't see many developers clawing at one-another to develop there.....not as long as the incinerator remains nearby. I wonder how that will affect ANY project in this area -- even those not directly adjacent to the incinerator?

[twincitizen]

The HERC garbage burner isn't that bad. As discussed elsewhere, it's the garbage trucks coming & going that are really stinky, but that's pretty limited to the early morning.

The facility itself could be painted a more attractive color(s) or better masked with trees, vines, etc. The new elevated LRT viaduct and potential building at the corner will help mask the visual impact of the HERC.

Regarding development, nothing has made the jump past the 3rd/4th St I-94 viaducts yet, so it's probably a bit early to say the garbage burner is solely responsible for stifling development. There's also a couple of huge-ass stroads (7th St, Olson/6th Av) and a bus garage that's pretty active most of the day. Development adjacent to the Interchange might not happen for many reasons besides the fact that garbage is being burned nearby.

I'd definitely count on the Shapco site being redeveloped into something nice though.

[mister.shoes]

I crawled around this construction site a bit this afternoon and posted some construction updates here:
http://tomabouttown.wordpress.com/2012/ ... ge-update/

I see rebar and forms pointing upwards. Excellent!

[min-chi-cbus]

The HERC garbage burner isn't that bad. As discussed elsewhere, it's the garbage trucks coming & going that are really stinky, but that's pretty limited to the early morning.

The facility itself could be painted a more attractive color(s) or better masked with trees, vines, etc. The new elevated LRT viaduct and potential building at the corner will help mask the visual impact of the HERC.

Regarding development, nothing has made the jump past the 3rd/4th St I-94 viaducts yet, so it's probably a bit early to say the garbage burner is solely responsible for stifling development. There's also a couple of huge-ass stroads (7th St, Olson/6th Av) and a bus garage that's pretty active most of the day. Development adjacent to the Interchange might not happen for many reasons besides the fact that garbage is being burned nearby.

I'd definitely count on the Shapco site being redeveloped into something nice though.

I'm not blaming the HERC for the void of development in that area entirely, but I think it definitely limits the scale in which development COULD occur. For that reason I almost wish The Interchange could be a block or two to the East.

[Nathan]

The HERC garbage burner isn't that bad. As discussed elsewhere, it's the garbage trucks coming & going that are really stinky, but that's pretty limited to the early morning.

The facility itself could be painted a more attractive color(s) or better masked with trees, vines, etc. The new elevated LRT viaduct and potential building at the corner will help mask the visual impact of the HERC.

Regarding development, nothing has made the jump past the 3rd/4th St I-94 viaducts yet, so it's probably a bit early to say the garbage burner is solely responsible for stifling development. There's also a couple of huge-ass stroads (7th St, Olson/6th Av) and a bus garage that's pretty active most of the day. Development adjacent to the Interchange might not happen for many reasons besides the fact that garbage is being burned nearby.

I'd definitely count on the Shapco site being redeveloped into something nice though.

I'm not blaming the HERC for the void of development in that area entirely, but I think it definitely limits the scale in which development COULD occur. For that reason I almost wish The Interchange could be a block or two to the East.

I think that, but also the Bus Facility is such a huge vast section of land that it makes developing farther west less practical, the walk-ability of those areas drop with such large swaths of land, with little actual connection to NL

[mattaudio]

I'd like to see an area plan for the entire triangle between the 3rd/4th viaducts and the 94 viaduct that would involve a lot of grid reconnection and laying the groundwork for an actual neighborhood.
- Less stroads
- Reconfiguration of Royalston / 7th St / 6th Ave-Olson Hwy
- Potential future redevelopment of HERC site and Heywood MTC site

Ideas?

[MNdible]

This might be a good place to start.

[twincitizen]

Heywood Garage and HERC aren't going anywhere. Full stop.

The areas south-west of 5th St N are very unlikely to be developed. The Met Council holds a ton of land behind the current bus garage for future expansion. Ideally some of this land could support light industrial uses, so the businesses currently in the Royalston Station area could relocate. The Royalston Station area plan basically can't happen unless the current businesses leave.

[trkaiser]

This site is on my daily commute, and I was shocked yesterday to see some girders going up in the site already. I suspect this is going to start looking very different quite quickly. I'll get some more photos after the holiday...

[MNdible]

This site is on my daily commute, and I was shocked yesterday to see some girders going up in the site already. I suspect this is going to start looking very different quite quickly. I'll get some more photos after the holiday...

They must be for temporary shoring, right? Most of this will be cast concrete, I'm sure.

[woofner]

It looks like one set of supports for the LRT tracks has concrete in place already - check out angle 2 of the web cam. It really gives a much better sense of the site layout, especially if you go down and walk around. Enormous waste of space if you ask me, although the glass half full would be that it's a nice roof for a parking ramp.

[jet777]

I'm not sure I understand this project, maybe someone can fill me in. 70 million seems like a lot for a parking garage and an elevated train so that baseball traffic can walk underneath without getting runover (although the $10/hr human railroad gates don't really work that well either). The north star is slow and doesn't go far enough, yet we need a hub for bikes and an LRT? Is the hotel a definite part of this development? Who is going to stay in a boutique hotel overlooking the ugliest garbage burner ever built, because there are a lot of glass windows in the renderings right now (I mean they did add some trees in neat little rows and some architectural rocks in cages, so maybe this qualifies it as visually attractive). Now that this area is no longer a barren wasteland and has residents, it's time for some serious discussion about getting rid of the HERC. Instead of sending the stadiums to the Arden hills ammo dump, why aren't we talking about moving the brown and yellow smokestack blowing carcinogens across my balcony there? Selfishly love the neighborhood investment but priorities are mixed up.

[mister.shoes]

Apparently there's only thing worth looking at on the webcams. Someone decided to point Angles 1 and 2 at the same thing as 3. *sigh*

On a brighter note, it looks like a tower crane is getting set up. That's always fun.

[Nick]

They've started the platform over here already.

[lordmoke]

There's a tower crane up now. Downtown will look very busy from the north once Opus gets theirs up!

[mamundsen]

I saw the tower crane driving home last night. Is it that tall to allow the boom to swing 360 degrees while avoiding Target Field, HERC, and Ford Center?

[mulad]

Yeah, that's my guess -- there was a newsletter sent out the other day which said it was 17 feet taller than the Ford Center.