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Re: Knollwood Mall - St. Louis Park

Posted: August 14th, 2013, 9:51 pm
by Anondson
Seems the costs of storm water compliance is a "tall order" for the mall owner. The city is not amused with the request to not bring the entire mall up to snuff.

http://stlouispark.patch.com/groups/bus ... iance-cost

Re: Knollwood Mall - St. Louis Park

Posted: August 27th, 2013, 5:09 pm
by Anondson
City planning commission votes to move it forward. Sounds like there will be a future "phase II" that will bring improved circulation to the site.

http://sailor.mnsun.com/2013/08/27/plan ... mall-plan/

I've long stared at maps of the site and imagine how to improve access around this cluster of an area, while this makes Knollwood mall better, it really isn't improving the larger problems of the area and circulation about. Seems an opportunity will be lost.

Re: Knollwood Mall - St. Louis Park

Posted: February 20th, 2014, 6:44 pm
by Chauncey87
For those who wish to know the end of Knollwood mall as we know it today is starting its transformation into what we have seen in the renders. The Applebee's will be having its last day in its current space on Sunday 2/23. Followed be reopening next to the Old Navy on Tuesday 2/25 if I remember right. Everything inside the mall has already closed up or will soon. With the only remaining stores left inside the mall being the swim school, Panera Bread, a cell phone place and TJ Maxx. The mall entrance from the Kohls will be sealed up to remove the cash registers and expand the mens dept. This spring/summer will start to see the new construction for Panera Bread w/ drive through and another retail space or two. As well as the transformation of the rest of the mall. Still wish they could have brought in some apts or condos into the mix above the shops, but that ship sailed long ago when the former mall manager told me it wasn't cost effective and wasn't worth it to study that option any more.

Re: Knollwood Mall - St. Louis Park

Posted: February 20th, 2014, 11:31 pm
by Anondson
My preference was to close Aquila from 36th to TH 7. Vacate the entire middle of the mall between Kohl's and TJ Maxx. Run Blake straight through the vacated middle to 36th. Connect 37th to the new stretch of Blake. Build small boxes north of TJ Maxx, north of Kohl's, south of Kohl's (where Aquila is now), and many smaller stores in the new land opened between 37th and TH 7.

Heck, with the TCF bank moving the TCF space by Texas could fit two small box stores there too.

By having Blake run straight up to 36th it would have made it easier to put in a grade separated crossing of Blake over 7. Oh, I dream.

Re: Knollwood Mall - St. Louis Park

Posted: February 22nd, 2014, 2:37 pm
by Anondson
This is pretty much my vision for what Knollwood should have done in my ultimate dream. I included my desire to grade-separate Blake over TH 7 and grade separate Texas under TH 7. I can't really make the Texas separation work all with on and off ramps because of the weird elevations on the south side, so I just imagine closing highway access there completely. Grade separating Texas and Blake would tremendously aid pedestrian crossings from the many apartments to the south and the stores to the north. Running Blake all the way through to 36th eliminates the need to Aquila, and reduces the zigzag use of TH 7 by drivers going north/south on the Texas/Blake route.

I see turning most of the Aquila ROW into park, and a chunk of the massive Kohl's northwest parking lot into a 4–5 story apartment building overlooking Minnehaha creek and quick access to North Cedar Lake Trail.

Here is my clumsy sketch of what I think should happen.

Image
Knollwood vision by xeoth, on Flickr

It's not a wholesale urbanist dream, but it's a big improvement to what's there and I believe an improvement to what is proposed.

Re: Knollwood Mall - St. Louis Park

Posted: February 22nd, 2014, 5:13 pm
by Chauncey87
Anondson I like your ideas of how you would have liked Knollwood to turn out. I have always thought of how cool it would be to pull the road from the creak to create more of a walking/bike trail and extra park space. with apts/condos across the newly moved street. However at least in the near term your very creative ideas will have to stay on the way back burner. :/ The hwy 7 ideas about taking out the lights are still being hashed out however.

Re: Knollwood Mall - St. Louis Park

Posted: April 15th, 2014, 6:45 pm
by Chauncey87
This is a little old but gives a good insight for whats to come of Knollwood Mall. The term "Power Center" gets tossed around a bit so that sounds exciting. :)

Knollwood Mall renovation includes downgrade to 'power center'

"An upcoming renovation at Knollwood Mall will embrace the fact that the St. Louis Park shopping center is more of a neighborhood draw than a traditional regional mall.

"We're working to completely reposition that asset into what we believe will be one of the premier grocery-anchored power centers in that Greater Minneapolis area," said Benjamin Schall, chief operating officer for mall owner Rouse Properties, during the company's recent second-quarter earnings call."

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... enter.html

Knollwood Mall - St. Louis Park

Posted: April 30th, 2014, 8:32 pm
by Anondson
I hadn't heard until reading this story, but seems Smashburger and Noodles are going in. Sure, they're chains but folks love them.

http://sailor.mnsun.com/2014/04/30/knol ... ouis-park/

Still wish there was a way to vacate Aquila and run Blake through to 36th ...

Re: St. Louis Park - General Topics

Posted: May 4th, 2014, 4:18 pm
by dragne_SDI
Some updates on the previously-mentioned Wooddale Flats condo project on the Most Holy Trinity site:

The advertising signs for the project that had been on site for a while came down quite a while ago, but now new ones are up listing the condo prices at $350,000 and, if I remember correctly, saying that the condos are already 40% sold. They also had the words "pre-construction" on them, does anyone know exactly when demo or construction is expected to begin?

I think this will add to the neighborhood a lot, but it will be sad to see the old Most Holy Trinity building be razed. It really is a great example of an old urban-style school building, and also has some personal sentimental value to it. Nevertheless, I think I like the look of the renderings of what will replace it.

(Original links)
http://stlouispark.patch.com/groups/5-t ... ale-avenue

https://sailor.mnsun.com/2013/03/19/dev ... ouis-park/

Re: St. Louis Park - General Topics

Posted: May 5th, 2014, 8:53 am
by mnmike
That was my grade school! An interesting note on that building...it was initially built with just the basement level, and the church operated out of that for some time before the rest of the building was built.

Re: St. Louis Park - General Topics

Posted: May 5th, 2014, 9:10 am
by mattaudio
I wonder why they aren't just converting the school into condos. That has been a successful model with classic brick buildings. A school in my neighborhood was proposed for senior co-op conversion/expansion before it ended up being sold to a charter school. Even Red Wing has a condo conversion similar to this one: http://www.redwingcondos.com/index.html

On a related note, it would be great to reconnect Wooddale Ave across Hwy 100 to tie the 36th St redevelopment area together with Excelsior on Grand.

Re: St. Louis Park - General Topics

Posted: May 5th, 2014, 9:38 am
by Anondson
On a related note, it would be great to reconnect Wooddale Ave across Hwy 100 to tie the 36th St redevelopment area together with Excelsior on Grand.
The city has looked at the cost of doing it primarily as a way to improve response times from the fire station to the southeast corner of the city. Two issues, first saved a minute at most in the worst traffic congestion on Excelsior. Second, the neighborhood by Aldersgate Church is extremely against bringing traffic through that tiny stretch that would pass them, EXTREMELY.

The cost would involve raising the frontage roads elevation or dropping TH 100 lower to give a bridge enough clearance, and that wasn't cheap.

Re: St. Louis Park - General Topics

Posted: May 18th, 2014, 9:59 pm
by Anondson
Proposed $30–50M community center moving forward ... again.

http://sailor.mnsun.com/2014/05/17/st-l ... s-forward/

Re: St. Louis Park - General Topics

Posted: May 19th, 2014, 7:35 am
by mattaudio
Is this the one with the proposed skyway over W 36th St?

Re: St. Louis Park - General Topics

Posted: May 19th, 2014, 9:25 am
by Anondson
Not sure about the final design but the site talked about is adjacent to the current Rec Center by Wolfe Park.

Re: St. Louis Park - General Topics

Posted: May 19th, 2014, 12:11 pm
by David Greene
I wonder why they aren't just converting the school into condos. That has been a successful model with classic brick buildings. A school in my neighborhood was proposed for senior co-op conversion/expansion before it ended up being sold to a charter school. Even Red Wing has a condo conversion similar to this one: http://www.redwingcondos.com/index.html
Hopkins did this decades ago with their old downtown junior high school.

http://goo.gl/maps/nCrwt

A picture of the old school is here:

http://hopkinsmnhistoricalsociety.org/c ... &gallery=7

Re: St. Louis Park - General Topics

Posted: May 29th, 2014, 9:40 pm
by Anondson
There really isn't a general West End thread, maybe there could be one to consolidate the apartment and entertainment developments into one ... Regardless ...

A 43,000 sq. feet "mega entertainment complex" signed a lease planning to open in early 2015. Bowling lanes with luxury seating (like Pinstripes?), arcade, comedy stage, restaurant, bar, all in one.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... l?page=all

Impressed.

Eliot Park Apartments - Saint Louis Park

Posted: June 19th, 2014, 5:02 pm
by Anondson
The city of Saint Louis Park mailed out this letter to residents. The purchaser of the Elliot School property has applied to demolish the buildings and proposed 138 apartments on the site on Cedar Lake Road.

Image
image by xeoth, on Flickr

Starts this Summer. Just down the road from West End but closer to the slightly dilapidated Cedar Lake and Louisiana.

Re: Elliot Park Apartments (Elliot School) - Saint Louis Par

Posted: June 19th, 2014, 5:15 pm
by seanrichardryan
That's actually a really cool mod school from the 40s with steel casement windows and glass block.

Re: Elliot Park Apartments (Elliot School) - Saint Louis Par

Posted: June 19th, 2014, 5:35 pm
by Anondson
Yeah, I'll be a bit sad to lose it. I'm guessing the city's past experience repurposing historic schools as apartments/condos (the Brookside conversion on Vernon) leads them to be more forgiving of tear downs. Brookside's conversion ran expensive though I think it suffered from the downturn.