urbanMSP

There's a bunch of guys with hard hats and hi-vis vests wandering around the site this morning.

I'm excited to get this one going. What a great transformation of a city block; from crappy parking, a boarded building, and a skyway to nowhere to 3 attractive buildings with some height and some more density. A great win for the city!

I don't think I can overstate how much better this block will feel as a result of these projects. I think we all know there's still a ton of opportunity, but having so much surface parking and other poor uses adjacent to "Minnesota's Main Street," in the CBD and right along our LRT was not a pretty sight.

I hope the empty lots around the Warehouse District station get the same type of treatment (except probably at shorter heights) within a few years. It's pretty sad many of our LRT stations are facing large surface parking lots, even in the most urban of stations.

Several Veit Construction trucks on site today, and one from an environmental services company. Progress!

Several Veit Construction trucks on site today, and one from an environmental services company. Progress!

Pretty sure Veit is doing the parking ramp demo. They've had trucks parked in the lot every time I walk by the area.

Veit is working on the demo of the ramp for Xcel, no 4Marq work has begun.

I wonder how often the permit information on the city of minneapolis website is updated..

This property has no new permits for 2014, and the master land use application from 2013 is still open. Makes me wonder if the design is still undergoing changes and that's the holdup.

Walked around this block yesterday and it looks like this project is waiting until the Old ramps is finally removed as trucks and stuff are being parked here. Not sure if the truck are Opus or of Mortenson. But the ramp is now just rubble and they are getting the rebar separated and hauled off. Hoping this will be started before the end of June.

Article in tcbmag.com mentioned a hopeful june start date by mortenson:

The firm’s development work may sometimes draw less attention, but Mortenson Development has a number of irons in the fire. The firm is developing a 211-room Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown Minneapolis and expects to start construction in June on 4Marq, a 260-unit, 30-story luxury apartment tower also in downtown Minneapolis.

Said Article

Also, while fairly minuscule, there is finally a new permit for 2014 listed on the minneapolis property info site for elevator:

SCOPE: REMOVE HYDRAULIC OIL FROM SYSTEM, REMOVE SECTION OF OIL LINE, CAP INLET TO JACK, REMOVE JACK, REMOVE WIRING BETWEEN DISCONNECT AND CONTROLLER, REMOVE ALL BATTERIES AND BALLASTS, CAP JACK HOLE.

Even though it's small, it's still movement!

I heard this project should be under construction by June 11. Look for the big equipment to arrive this week and post a photo if you see anything.

^^Good News.

Seemed like a lot of activity on this site today.

"400 Marquette Propert Owner"……??

Does this just mean a change in management? Or will this lead to changes in the design?
(I don't know much about real estate )

Who knows. A lot of real estate happens with shell companies. Obviously both the "buyer" and the "seller" were shell companies created specifically to deal with this building, so even knows if this is a real transaction or just passing between shells.

My guess is that it would stay the same though.

I would guess the sale is a good thing for 4Marq, worst case is the currently planned and approved tower is built but a little later than currently planned. Best case something bigger and better is built. If you are an investment firm, like the one that just bought 4Marq, you don't do so with without having a firm place in order to turn a profit. I don't think they would go bigger considering how far down the planning and approval path 4Marq is but we'll see.

yay
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/262390971.html

Great news. Walking by the site this weekend I noticed fresh utility markings on both Marquette and 4th. The new markings appeared to center around the 4Marq property specifically and not the adjacent Xcel HQ project or Nic on 5th. Since they would need to mark utilities prior to any digging (and I would assume demo of the underground parking on site would include some digging), this may be a sign of imminent work? We'll see...