urbanMSP

Not all new construction is perfect, but I heard the building had two significant failures in the past six months. This winter the parking garage door could not be opened for a week, trapping cars inside requiring residents with cars trapped inside to find other accommodations to get to work until it could be repaired.

Second happened in the past few days, a water leak in the upper floors damaged 14 units so badly they became unlivable. Residents were relocated to other units or allowed out of their lease.

Gossip, heard from someone intimate with the building.

Those black eyes will be hard to get past for possible tenants that take the time to bone up on online reviews. May require a rate reduction to keep it filled in the future. Who will want to live in a building with know issues waiting for the next shoe to drop.

Will be interesting to hear who is to blame. The developer going cheap, lousy contractors, or poor design by the architectural firm. Will be some court case I'm sure.

All of the landscaping installed on 36th Street was near death last fall. Poor plant choices, as the shading of the building makes it completely sunless all year. It will be interesting to see what greens up

All of the landscaping installed on 36th Street was near death last fall. Poor plant choices, as the shading of the building makes it completely sunless all year. It will be interesting to see what greens up

Unfortunately, neglected landscaping seems to be a really common problem I see at a lot of developments. I feel like they often set up irrigation systems that are adequate to *maintain* but not to establish new plants (that need substantially more/deeper watering for the first year). It seems that, especially at new commercial sites (parking lot landscaping buffer etc) that like 1/3 to 1/2 of new trees die in the first year. Although residential generally seems to do better than retail.

SLP's forestry department is using better watering methods on newly planted trees now. They hang a water bag around them and regularly fill them up. They are also more diligent at making sure the crews planting trees loosen the tree ball ... one of my peeves.

SLP's forestry department is using better watering methods on newly planted trees now. They hang a water bag around them and regularly fill them up. They are also more diligent at making sure the crews planting trees loosen the tree ball ... one of my peeves.

Yeah a lot of cities and agencies seem to be using gatorbags now. I know both Richfield and Minneapolis do as well. However, this is obviously limited to the trees the agencies plant. The 36Park plantings all appear to be on private land.

Occasionally even boulevard trees end up planted by a developer. I've been irritated that the new trees planted by Lakewinds Co-op on Lyndale in Richfield are pretty half-dead looking. I complained to the general manager who, rather than agreeing to get them watered, assured me they were under warranty and could be replaced with new scrawny, to-be-neglected trees in the future.