urbanMSP

I remember reading about a similar situation that took place several decades ago involving Bloomington & Edina. If you look at city boundary maps you'll notice a notch north from Bloomington into Edina just west of Highway 100. This is where the Doubletree, originally Radisson, stands. When built, the hotel straddled the city boundary (sort of like KSTP on the Mpls-St. Paul border). Hotel guests like to have drinks, something Edina's liquor laws made difficult. Bloomington ended up annexing the full Radisson property.

Here's a story where it's mentioned:
http://patch.com/minnesota/edina/edinas ... uor-limits

Wide ranging update. If this interests you, worth a full read.

http://sailor.mnsun.com/2015/05/02/st-l ... west-plan/

Gotta say, "the city may run out of water" is definitely one of better objections to a project I've heard in a while.

TPI will buy hotel land from DLC, develop Residence Inn, maybe 8 stories: http://finance-commerce.com/2015/05/tpi ... l-project/

As noted above, another developer is buying the office / parking ramp sites. Gotta say, DLC acted pretty quickly on acquiring, gaining land use approvals, and subsequently selling off the various non-residential pieces of this site. Kudos to them for taking care of business. Let's now hope all 3 separate developers are able to execute and get this area complete. Also kudos to Councilmember Sue Sanger for calling them out on the stupid "Central Park West" name for the park. It sounds like DLC will come up with another name for the green space...hopefully that new name will carry over to the rest of the development as well.

What would you call it? (the whole West End phase 2, the park, the residential buildings, etc.)

I think ________ @ West End is a good start. Dumb to try to establish another "brand" in this area. The Offices @ West End, West End Plaza, etc.

TPI will buy hotel land from DLC, develop Residence Inn, maybe 8 stories: http://finance-commerce.com/2015/05/tpi ... l-project/

Also kudos to Councilmember Sue Sanger for calling them out on the stupid "Central Park West" name for the park. It sounds like DLC will come up with another name for the green space...hopefully that new name will carry over to the rest of the development as well.

I wouldn't give too much credit to Sue Sanger.

She is solidly anti-development. She argued and voted against the other DLC project because "too many apartments, not enough families, etc."

I haven't forgotten her previous silly comments. But still...I appreciate her taking shots at the "Central Park" name.

This is true.

More West End news

Golden Valley and SLP are inching closer to agreement on how to deal with Central Park West straddling the border.

http://sailor.mnsun.com/2015/08/25/st-l ... st-issues/

How much staff time is being, and going to be, used dealing with the reluctance to sell this to SLP?

Not once in these articles has the option of SLP annexing the property ever been mentioned.

Has it simply not ever been discussed? Did it actually come up a while ago and GV gave a hard "no"?

Anondson on the case! Please find out for us why annexation has never been publicly mentioned.

Article in the Strib about Millennium at West End, etc.

http://www.startribune.com/more-apartme ... 364554381/

Interesting to hear that Millenium is already 45% leased and increasing about 10% per month. For being an article about all the apartments coming to St. Louis Park, the article writer sure left out a lot of projects. The Bridgewater bank site, the PLACE development, and the big complex at Highway 7 and France immediately come to mind.

So what is the status of the West End? Are they gaining tenants in their retail or slowly losing and soon will be just another trend that did not pan out in the long run? Hopefully the few new housing towers will be enough people in to help stem the tide of under performing stores.

So what is the status of the West End? Are they gaining tenants in their retail or slowly losing and soon will be just another trend that did not pan out in the long run? Hopefully the few new housing towers will be enough people in to help stem the tide of under performing stores.

I think this was the hope when Excelsior's building was done. Now DLC's, then the next ones from DLC...

I think it is a matter of the West End shopping center clinging to life until the whole development gets filled out by the above and if it isn't leased up by then, it is officially over.

How bad is it (the West End)? It seems like such a slam-dunk location for......anything. Offices, apartments, retail, hotels, whatever. I think its ESPECIALLY ideal for offices and hotels though, but it just missed the last office bubble in the late 90's. Not sure if retail is already mostly served in that area.

There is a large vacant area at the southwest corner of the area of the West End retail, the deal for some sort of adult Chucky Cheese-type place fell through to fill it all. The country bar closed, I think. And one restaurant space has cycled through one concept after another.

Getting the south end stocked with retail will help the feel of vacant spaces. At this point I wish they'd consider leveling the southwest retail building at the corner of Gamble Dr. and Park Place Blvd. and rezone for multiuse and pile up apartments. I dunno, maybe have walk ups on the ground floor.

That SW corner is just so far away from everything else in the complex and isn't going to get any closer to the new developments happening at the extreme NE end. PP Blvd is such a wide street and the west side of it is big box wasteland. I can't see that end of the retail filling up any time soon. I'm inclined to agree with Anondson and say that replacing the SW building with something bigger and mixed would make for a nice bookend.

The rest of it, though, seems to be doing just peachy. I'm not there often, but when I am it seems quite nice and with a good amount of activity.

That SW corner is just so far away from everything else in the complex and isn't going to get any closer to the new developments happening at the extreme NE end. PP Blvd is such a wide street and the west side of it is big box wasteland. I can't see that end of the retail filling up any time soon. I'm inclined to agree with Anondson and say that replacing the SW building with something bigger and mixed would make for a nice bookend.

The rest of it, though, seems to be doing just peachy. I'm not there often, but when I am it seems quite nice and with a good amount of activity.

This is well said. The places that are working are working well, the theater, the smaller shops on north/south street, Cooper, but that south end...I think the idea to bag what is there and go with a "book end" mixed use building would be great.

I've also been thinking about what could be done to create more of a pedestrian feel to the whole area. IF such a mixed-use bookend existed at that south end, it sure would be nice to pop across the street and grab a coffee from Caribou but it would be a miserable/dangerous pedestrian experience. Also, there are going to be a LOT of people living over there once DLCs thing is all built out and it sure would be nice to create a better pedestrian experience in the big box zone to the west. I'm not saying that the apartment tenants are walking to Home Depot to get a sheet of plywood and walking back but if you had a bike with a trailer or setup for cargo, you could go to Costco to load up...this is probably an urbanism dream that I'm having...move along.

At this point I wish they'd consider leveling the southwest retail building at the corner of Gamble Dr. and Park Place Blvd. and rezone for multiuse and pile up apartments. I dunno, maybe have walk ups on the ground floor.

I've had the same thought ever since the deal for Entertainment 720 fell through.

I suppose it would depend on where the building footings are, how the underground parking is set up there, etc. Maybe you could just put a heavier, more complex building there with minimal changes to the foundation, maybe not (assuming that residents would use existing parking and that a new underground structure would not be created). This change was very unlikely as long as Duke owned the property, since they don't do residential development. I'm not sure what the new owner's prerogative is, but I'm sure they won't make any major changes until the build-out of Central Park West is complete. I'm sure their current hope is that the additional 500+ units in Millennium and CPW's two buildings plus hotel guests and office workers will give the whole area a boost. As others said though, it is quite a jaunt to the southern end of the retail area from any of this new development. It really does seem like it needs a residential/hotel bookend on the southern end.

On a more general/speculative note: I actually kind of want West End to fail (or at least not succeed) as a "boutique retail" destination. I DO hope it succeeds as a theater/restaurant/bar entertainment area. The office/hotel/residential areas are obviously already successful and will continue to be going forward - I don't think that's really in question. Personally, I'd rather see shopping be successful elsewhere, namely in other parts of SLP and Downtown, obviously. Long term, it would be better if the "Shops at West End" primarily served the daily needs of SLP residents and workers, not as a sort of mini-mall shopping destination.

New adult playland.
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... t-end.html

Not too shabby.