urbanMSP

You'd think there's a way to activate your vacant parcels (and maybe even generate some revenue!) while you await those ambitious projects. I mean, come on. https://goo.gl/maps/Y7Q3teN5qMD2 Get some hipsters and shipping containers, stat!

The thing is though that Ackerberg has failed at building anything other than a taxpayer subsidized parking ramp. I don't think there are glorious projects at the end of the rainbow, just eternally vacant lots. I don't think he is ever going to get anything built. His hotel got beat to the market by a competitor. The first draft of Mozaic was great but by the time it was ready, the market for condos had collapsed. How long has the lot next to Calhoun Square been vacant? When I moved here in 1987 it was surface parking. How much longer should we wait, twenty years, fifty years? A five story midrise is better than a beautiful project that will never be built. All we are getting is a scar in Uptown's urban fabric that never goes away.

The thing is though that Ackerberg has failed at building anything other than a taxpayer subsidized parking ramp. I don't think there are glorious projects at the end of the rainbow, just eternally vacant lots. I don't think he is ever going to get anything built. His hotel got beat to the market by a competitor. The first draft of Mozaic was great but by the time it was ready, the market for condos had collapsed. How long has the lot next to Calhoun Square been vacant? When I moved here in 1987 it was surface parking. How much longer should we wait, twenty years, fifty years? A five story midrise is better than a beautiful project that will never be built. All we are getting is a scar in Uptown's urban fabric that never goes away.

That's not quite true. My house I bought in 1990 a block away and there was a Taco Bell there until around 93.

Wasn't that the Music-Go-Round on that block as well?

Yes and that didn't leave until after I moved away in 2005.

Well. 12 years is so much better. Good talk.

I don't love the fact that it's sitting empty either, but there's a huge difference between 30 years and 12 years, especially since there was a massive recession that chewed up a lot of those years (and sent a lot of projects back to the drawing boards).

True, but I think the criticism that Ackerberg hasn't built squat in this cycle is a fair one. Ackerberg is a property owner/manager, not a developer. It's absurd that this site continues to sit empty. If a hotel doesn't pencil out and/or you can't attract a large office tenant, sell to CPM so they can build another 6-story apartment building with some retail/office space and cash the damn check.

Music Go Round was only half the block. The other half was a surface parking extension of the Calhoun Square ramp. I use to park there when Ravenswood Books was still in Calhoun Square, which was in the early '90s.

And before it was taco bell, that lot was..... parking!

And before it was taco bell, that lot was..... parking!

And before that Zantigo!

and billboards.

I wish to partially retract my previous comment condemning Ackerberg for not building anything. As it turns out, Ackerberg has owned Calhoun Square for just under 3 years. So while the site has been fully vacant for ~12 years (and at least partially vacant much longer, thanks everyone for the history) it's been less than 3 years under current ownership.

So while I can give Ackerberg a break on those grounds, the rest of my comment stands - Ackerberg hasn't built squat this boom cycle, aside from Mozaic itself, which arguably has one foot in the pre-recession era, one foot in the current boom.

Are you referring specifically to Uptown? Because they've definitely done projects around town.

The parking lot behind Lagoon closes next week in anticipation of construction. This is happening.

WHAT

No way. Didn't permits expire?

Weird that it hasn't been in the news recently...

No way. Didn't permits expire?

The approvals for this project would have expired on September 29, 2016, according to the Planning Commission report.