urbanMSP

These metrics usually fail to catch smaller individually owned buildings as well. There's really no good source of this kind of information from anywhere.

The boom continues...

Just this week we've had the following major announcements:
NordHaus phase II: 260 units
Doran/CSM General Mills project Phase I: 375 units
Calhoun Towers multi-phase project: 500+ units
Was that senior project in Propect Park (295 units) just announced last week too? Or has that been known for a while?

Anything else that was just announced in the last few weeks?

More of a rumor than an official announcement, but apparently the Mortenson tower at Hennepin and 4th might be gaining six stories?

Is that the AC hotel?

Whoops. Hennepin and 4th St. NE. The recently replaced USBank branch.

Anything else folks can think of in the last month or so? I'm considering writing a brief blurb for the streets.mn main site with a round-up of the recent announcements.

P.S. The front page of today's F&C paper had all three of the above (Calhoun, NordHaus & Doran/CSM). Worth the $2.50 or whatever if you want to read those articles.

Wasn't the Wall site in Prospect Park in last month?

I wrote a similar thing and published it this morning. I didn't go into much detail on each project, just wanted to make the point that not all development is luxury. I really should've published it to streets.mn for more readership:

http://www.mspyimby.com/new-proposed-ho ... nneapolis/

I bet you still could!

Okay, I just submitted my article there. It's only based on what's up for review at CPC CoW tomorrow, so several of the above projects aren't included.

1st Qtr apartment vacancies in downtown Minneapolis are 2.7% for established buildings and 3.7% including buildings in the lease-up phase.

http://m.startribune.com/apartment-dema ... n=business

Downtown Minneapolis remains at 2.7%. Entire metro is at 2.4%.

http://www.startribune.com/twin-cities- ... 441768723/

While demographic changes are a factor towards apartment demand, the biggest factor is the Twin Cities’ remarkable economic growth adding jobs.

By the end of the year, developers are expected to complete 3,800 rental units and an additional 6,000 units in 2018.

So riddle me this. Why are developer so scared of building new apartments? Larger towers? More at a time? Better designs? I heard recently that developers don't want to put up anymore apartments in the North Loop because it'll be too saturated.

I don't think developers are afraid. I think the lenders are, and that's why we keep seeing the same size and density of apartments built.

I wonder whether our regular cast of local developers has regular financiers as well. I can't imagine you'd want to lend money to, say, a 50 story apartment building if it could put other 10 story projects you're invested in at risk of not reaching maximum occupancy.

Not to mention there's no reason to spend a premium to build taller when there are still plenty of brownfield sites to build smaller buildings on. We might have to wait until the North Loop and East Town are substantially built out before we start seeing developers push higher out of necessity.

Relatedly, I'm wondering what's happened to the other, apparently fully-approved proposals that have disappeared without a trace, like the Handicraft Guild building apartments and the Northstar Center apartment conversion. Just financing troubles?

Devil's Advocate got kicked out a few months ago, so it looked like something was happening there again, but... nothing.

...and the Northstar Center apartment conversion.

It looks like that was simply one option explored to attract a buyer and/or investors. Plans for a residential conversion were never actually brought forward to the city for approval. It could happen some day, but isn't imminent.
http://finance-commerce.com/2016/03/nor ... partments/

Ah, I was thinking it got further in the process than it did. Also, now that I think about it, CPC approvals expire after two years, right? So the Handicraft Guild project would have to be reapproved at this point.

The Strib notes that apartment construction is about to kick into high gear.

The vacancy rate is already 4.8 percent downtown and could rise to about 9 percent by this time next year, Marquette’s Wittenberg predicts. Downtown Minneapolis last experienced a pop in vacancies amid a flurry of construction in 2013 and 2014, when a surge to a 9.8 percent vacancy rate took about 18 months to rebalance.

I’m not worried.....yet.

Pretty incredible Committee of the Whole agenda for the 12th:

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/meetings/p ... MSP-209880

11 potential projects on the docket, some known and some brand new.