Saint Paul - General Topics

[alexschief]

St. Paul has eliminated parking minimums. Huge W for a city that isn't known for sticking its neck out and taking risks, especially with regards to traffic and parking.

This has flown under the radar a bit, but in the first half of this year, St. Paul saw more housing starts than Minneapolis. The city has been seeing increased starts in past years and that trend has continued. With development roaring to life along the Green Line, A Line, and B Line routes, and four(!!!) superblocks in various stages of design and redevelopment (Ford, Hillcrest, Midway, Sears), it's a uniquely optimistic time for housing in the Most Livable City In America.

[jonnyengel]

Firm behind NYC High Line will be designing St. Paul's river balcony.

https://www.twincities.com/2021/09/09/f ... r-balcony/

[seanrichardryan]

'Firm behind Minneapolis' Nicollet Mall will be designing St. Paul's river balcony.'

[jonnyengel]

Woof...what a range of successful and mediocre projects...

[alexschief]

I'm not going to lie to you and say that JCFO knocked Nicollet Mall out of the park. I think there were some mistakes, especially some of the art pieces and follies that were placed along the mall. But the biggest problem with the Nicollet redesign was the client. The inability to spend money on the pavers that were originally called for is really 50-75% of the problem with the end product that people complain about. The "grey" feeling of the street is not really their fault, and I do think that the street will get better over time as the trees mature.

[bubzki2]

Nic. mall is fine, just needs more people and programming. The city did botch their cost-cutting, though.

[Didier]

Does anyone (aka seanrichardryan) know what the plan is for the new building going up at Marshall and Finn (the one across from Marshall at Finn)? It almost looks like there will be a separate line of row houses in front of the main building.

[seanrichardryan]

Yep! There is a 4 story building along the alley facing finn and 6- 3 bedroom townhomes lining marshall.

[acs]

https://www.startribune.com/st-paul-rev ... 600145447/

James Connor Field (same people as who did the Nicollet Mall redesign) just revealed their concepts for the long-awaited St. Paul River Balcony. No mention in the article of specific costs or how STP plans to fund it, but I get the vibe that the plan is to incorporate these elements into projects like the AECOM office project and have the developers eat the cost. That is, if that project ever gets off the ground.

[bubzki2]

Their focus group seemed pretty sharp based on the comments. I'm glad there's a plan so it won't just be piece meal if/when anything gets built. The city could really benefit from this.

[seanrichardryan]

The old Ecolab building(the Northern one of the Ex-Ecolab complex) will become apartments and a grocery store:

And yes, the buyer and developer is a former convict.

LOL, who could have guessed this outcome?

St. Paul skyscraper nearly condemned after convicted con man ‘abandoned’ project
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/kstp-news-5- ... d-project/

[Rube Dali]

The old Ecolab building(the Northern one of the Ex-Ecolab complex) will become apartments and a grocery store:

And yes, the buyer and developer is a former convict.

LOL, who could have guessed this outcome?

St. Paul skyscraper nearly condemned after convicted con man ‘abandoned’ project
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/kstp-news-5- ... d-project/

And to think, the building almost got condemned.

Silly con man.

[r2b2]

MnDOT is planning a reconstruction of East 7th St and Arcade St in Saint Paul, with some bike lanes and bike trails and road diets in most segments.

A survey to comment on their plans is available here: https://talk.dot.state.mn.us/e7tharcade, available through (I think) March 4th.

[mamundsen]

Most of that is the recently (pre-covid) extended route 54. I wonder if that will be removed/shortened when Purple Line is operational.

[Tiller]

Most of that is the recently (pre-covid) extended route 54. I wonder if that will be removed/shortened when Purple Line is operational.

It's in our planning documents as a future aBRT route though, and serves almost entirely different walksheds compared to the Purple Line. This would be a great opportunity to at least prepare the station areas here for aBRT, since coordination with other road work can cut aBRT station costs in half.

[Uptown46]

The timing is somewhat unfortunate, as we are currently removing the E. 7th/White Bear aBRT from our official plan (mostly an issue for the Arcade stretch, as E. 7th itself is also covered by the proposed Randolph line after the update). https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... 1_333.aspx But projects like this are a good opportunity to plan for/install some of the aBRT infrastructure.

[Trademark]

The timing is somewhat unfortunate, as we are currently removing the E. 7th/White Bear aBRT from our official plan (mostly an issue for the Arcade stretch, as E. 7th itself is also covered by the proposed Randolph line after the update). https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... 1_333.aspx But projects like this are a good opportunity to plan for/install some of the aBRT infrastructure.

This is a prime spot for a bus lane. Whether a BRT goes on this section or not. Its the gateway to the East side and is a way for a lot of buses to get downtown.

[seanrichardryan]

Yep! There is a 4 story building along the alley facing finn and 6- 3 bedroom townhomes lining marshall.

Update-

[Didier]

It's way more random than I anticipated. I was thinking the townhouses would be like two stories, so the main building was visible behind them. I can't imagine the appeal of these two buildings so close together. You could never open your window!

[seanrichardryan]

Hard to tell but they are about 25' apart, which is larger than a typical side-yard setback.