Rochester

[matthew5080]

New plans for the old Post Bulletin site include two new hotels, a 7 story apartment building, and an underground parking ramp.

https://www.postbulletin.com/business/h ... letin-site

[Ociee117]

Updated Renderings of the large proposed Citywalk apartments adjacent to the Mayo expansion







https://krocnews.com/citywalk-apartment ... rochester/

[Ociee117]

Another apartment proposed along the 2nd Street Corridor / BRT Route



https://krocnews.com/housing-rochester-mn/

"The location slated for development is between downtown Rochester and St. Mary’s Hospital. Plans for the project call for constructing a market-rate 133 unit residential building, according to the city council’s meeting agenda item...The proposal also calls for a pedestrian-only walkway running north and south between 2nd St. and 1st St. Southwest. A small park along the walkway is also included in the proposal."

[Ociee117]

Rochester's 6th Street Bridge gets design update

https://krocnews.com/rochesters-long-aw ... gn-update/

[Ociee117]

Fairly large apartment proposed for 4th St SE

https://www.postbulletin.com/news/local ... ng-project

[Silophant]

They've finally broken ground on Rochester's BRT line.

https://www.startribune.com/what-to-kno ... 601371293/

[commissioner]

For those that go to Mayo, this is the last week the Damon ramp will be open, The West ramp will have more spaces for p
atient parking IIRC.

[Bakken2016]

https://www.startribune.com/rochesters- ... /601438311

BRT line cost increased by 21 million most likely due to tariffs.

[Silophant]

This is the third time Rochester has sought bids for key aspects of the proposed bus transit line, which includes street reconstruction, an underground tunnel and six bus-station shelters along the 2nd Street corridor west of downtown.

This must be a pedestrian tunnel, right?

[Bakken2016]

This is the third time Rochester has sought bids for key aspects of the proposed bus transit line, which includes street reconstruction, an underground tunnel and six bus-station shelters along the 2nd Street corridor west of downtown.

This must be a pedestrian tunnel, right?

[commissioner]

Looks that way, and not surprisingly, I drive 2nd street weekly and it's busy!

[Nick]

This seems like a pretty interesting project. Are there comparable examples from other small cities that have worked well or not worked well? Is parking expensive in downtown Rochester?

[daveybabymsp]

This seems like a pretty interesting project. Are there comparable examples from other small cities that have worked well or not worked well? Is parking expensive in downtown Rochester?

My understanding is that most Mayo employees do not get a parking spot and are encouraged to take transit to work. Heard that anecdotally from a friend who used to work there.

[Apollo]

This seems like a pretty interesting project. Are there comparable examples from other small cities that have worked well or not worked well? Is parking expensive in downtown Rochester?

My understanding is that most Mayo employees do not get a parking spot and are encouraged to take transit to work. Heard that anecdotally from a friend who used to work there.

I am an employee at the Mayo and this is correct. East lot (6th Street) and West lot are our two biggest employee lots. Theres a shuttle bus that goes from West Lot to St. Marys and a shuttle bus from East Lot to Mayo Downtown. Plus theres a intercampus bus that goes between both campuses, so with this BRT they are replacing three shuttle route with one, which explains why the Mayo is paying for it's operation cost.

[Ociee117]

https://www.postbulletin.com/news/local ... -townhomes

A new housing development is planned for the Lowertown neighborhood in northeast Rochester, near Silver Lake Park. The project, led by Dirk Erickson of Stack Development, includes:

- 132-unit apartment complex
- 10 for-sale townhomes, meant to restore homeownership options after demolishing 10 vacant houses on the site

Key points:

- The development aims to balance rental and ownership housing and respond to neighborhood concerns about lost equity.

- The design features a five-story L-shaped apartment building and three-story townhomes, with architecture intended to match the surrounding residential area and local historical context.

- The project site is on the block west of First Avenue NE between 8th and 9th Streets.

- The apartments may include walk-up units, and the design is about 30% complete.

- Construction could begin as early as September 2025, pending city approvals and financing.

- Financing is being sought through HUD, potentially offering affordable units for households earning up to $98,000, and the developer is also pursuing tax-increment financing.

- The full development is expected to be ready by early 2027.

[angrysuburbanite]

https://www.startribune.com/rochesters- ... /601438311

BRT line cost increased by 21 million most likely due to tariffs.

I was looking at the current bus system and WOW I really hope they restructure it when this opens! I can't understand their system map at all, so many deviations, one way loops, and 30 routes somehow! 6 routes replace the other 24 routes in evenings and weekends to make things even more confusing. It seems like an extremely inefficient network as-is, and needs a lot of optimization. If I'm looking at it correctly all of these routes result in under 1,000 rides a day and it has been declining since 2022.

A logical next step from this BRT line I think should be a north-south route on Broadway. Right now there doesn't seem to be a route that just stays on Broadway along its length.

[J. Mc]

I was looking at the current bus system and WOW I really hope they restructure it when this opens! I can't understand their system map at all, so many deviations, one way loops, and 30 routes somehow! 6 routes replace the other 24 routes in evenings and weekends to make things even more confusing. It seems like an extremely inefficient network as-is, and needs a lot of optimization. If I'm looking at it correctly all of these routes result in under 1,000 rides a day and it has been declining since 2022.

Historically the system was 'inherited' from Rochester City Lines which was still basically operating it privately with subsidies up until the City of Rochester put out transit operations to competitive bid and rebranded as RPT Ride around 2013. In the early 2010's the system had one of the highest farebox recovery rates in the state for a few years. The entire system as you can tell was primarily designed to bring workers downtown to Mayo/St Marys in the AM and bring them back home in the PM. I rode several of the routes at various points around that time since I was occasionally spending a day in the city while a relative was undergoing treatment at Mayo. In the morning buses would head out empty from downtown and come back with 50-60 riders after winding through a random subdivision. Those one-way loops were pretty efficient at that time for moving a lot of riders. Now of course it's in need of a solid reshaping. According to their 2023 Annual Report express ridership dropped significantly in 2023 with the opening of 800 new employee parking spots downtown.

There have been studies done about creating more crosstown service and making it easier to use the system to get around the city in addition to just traveling downtown. More recently they did renumber the entire system to attempt to clean up the old single digit/letter route numbering, 100's serve NE, 200's serve SE, 500's are x-town, etc. vs. 1, 1D, 1N, 1X, 7, 7A, etc. From skimming over their current 5 year plan it looks like some minor redesign will be done but nothing major.
https://www.rochestermn.gov/departments ... ts-reports

I went down to Rochester earlier this year to get some current photos of the system and ride a route or two and it definitely has lost some ridership activity compared to 15 years ago. From what I saw there were also some shortcomings. Some of the route info on their site and signs was inaccurate, like discontinued routes were still listed online and at stops. (That may have been a recent change and since fixed?) The downtown as the main destination theme is still quite obvious when riding the bus as the next stop display includes a countdown clock [15 minutes to Downtown]. The fare options were lacking too, I think you still need to pay $2 twice if you want to ride one route to the store and back for example. No day pass option, but there are slight discounts when buying multiride passes and 1 month and 1 year pass options for folks who regularly ride. (Hey, I would buy one if Met Council wanted to roll out a $480 1 year unlimited ride pass)

They have done a good job consolidating the park and ride service into a few main lots with frequent peak period service and also all-day local service option as back-up.

I will say the current City of Rochester corporate scheme on the newer buses looks decent:

Rochester Public Transit 306 by J. Mc., on Flickr

Nice job on the info poster with schedule info, but maybe put it across the street in the shelter for the stop the route actually stops at?

Rochester Public Transit Bus Stop by J. Mc., on Flickr

If you can't sell enough ad wraps for auto dealerships, gutters, and whatnot, might as well use that empty bus to advertise convenient downtown parking in your six parking ramps...

Rochester Public Transit 300 by J. Mc., on Flickr

[Ociee117]

https://www.postbulletin.com/news/local ... ibm-campus



Development of the former IBM campus in Rochester, now called the Rochester Technology Campus, is expected to take 7 to 10 years, according to IRG Realty Advisors. The developer, Rochester West Campus LLC, bought the 490-acre site in 2018 for $33.9 million and is now moving forward after delays from a traffic study.

The plan includes developing approximately 250 vacant acres with a mix of housing, commercial, and light industrial uses, but not offices, since there's already a surplus of them on-site.