urbanMSP

And the winner is....

St. Paul finally landed the big one -- or most of it.

Gov. Mark Dayton announced Thursday the award of $25 million, $2 million short of what the city wanted, for a $54-million ballpark for the St. Paul Saints.

Full new article found here. http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/169597636.html

Well, it got the bonding award, so is this officially a go? As with most stadium projects, I have mixed feelings, but this will be an amenity to Downtown St. Paul. It is also a pretty small amount of public money compared to our other recent stadium projects.

If there ever was a city in need of a faux historic ballpark its St. Paul Minnesota.

If there ever was a city in need of a faux historic ballpark its St. Paul Minnesota.

Post of the week!

yawn....how much infusion of public money will it take for dt st paul to be "revitalized".

how does macy's stay in business there?

yawn....how much infusion of public money will it take for dt st paul to be "revitalized".

how does macy's stay in business there?

St Paul has been in revitalizing mode for 50 years.

As for Macy's staying open, most people think it will close next year. The only reason it's open now is because they received a loan (subsidy) from the city to stay open through 2012, after that the "loan" is forgiven and they are free to close if they wish.

Off topic now but I wonder what will happen to the building if Macy's does close. I remember a while back that Target was interested, and that would certainly be more of a catalyst than the aging Macy's.

yawn....how much infusion of public money will it take for dt st paul to be "revitalized".

Apparently 1/40 the amount needed to revitalize Downtown East in Minneapolis.

Off topic now but I wonder what will happen to the building if Macy's does close. I remember a while back that Target was interested, and that would certainly be more of a catalyst than the aging Macy's.

Just walked past that over lunch. Wow, there's so much potential for redevelopment along that stretch of Wabasha... between Macys, vacancies in the street level of World Trade, and surface parking lots.

yawn....how much infusion of public money will it take for dt st paul to be "revitalized".

Apparently 1/40 the amount needed to revitalize Downtown East in Minneapolis.

Or Downtown Minneapolis is 40 times more important . . .

(I'm 95% kidding)

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRq8S4SG6Gw[/youtube]

how is this design "faux historic"?

Its not. It should be.

Its not. It should be.

I'd prefer a more contemporary studium, but one that uses materials from the indistral area around it! Brick, Steel, metals, and glass.

Design/Build team for the new ballpark has been selected...
http://ballparkdigest.com/201209185574/ ... s-ballpark

From the article...
The design/build team for a new St. Paul Saints (independent; American Association) has been chosen: Ryan Companies, AECOM and Julie Snow Architects.

Ryan will serve as general contractor and lead designer on the downtown ballpark project; LA-based AECOM and Minneapolis-based Julie Snow Architects will assist.

how is this design "faux historic"?

My opinion is a fake historic will not fit as well as a more contemporary design using building materials found in and around the lowertown area. With it being next to a more contemporary light rail building, it should blend in more with that and the roads and park land to the east. I would hope they use stone, brick, a variety of metals and Glass in their design of the structure. With Julie Snow as part of the team I feel very confident in an excellent design.

I was at the Saints ballpark celebration in Mears park today and heard that the new ballpark design is really wide open. I was told the rendering frequently shown was developed in two days and it's not known (or at least they aren't saying) what it will ultimately look like. I actually love the current rendering so was a bit bummed to hear it may not look like that. I was also told the old Gillete building won't be taken down until February or March next year; the is a lot of environmental work that needs to be done.

[BBvideo 425,350]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJKxAFRDpbU[/BBvideo]

I'm surprised nobody has brought up the controvery surrounding this project. I'm curious to know what some of the people on this board think about the city pre-arranging their deal with Ryan to manage this project without going out to bid. It seems to me that they overstepped their bounds by not putting this out to bid when they are recieving so much state money on the project. A loophole that I might understand is if they got bids beforehand in order to come up with the cost of the project, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
I'm very curious to see how all this plays out.

I'm surprised nobody has brought up the controvery surrounding this project. I'm curious to know what some of the people on this board think about the city pre-arranging their deal with Ryan to manage this project without going out to bid. It seems to me that they overstepped their bounds by not putting this out to bid when they are recieving so much state money on the project. A loophole that I might understand is if they got bids beforehand in order to come up with the cost of the project, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
I'm very curious to see how all this plays out.

Uh is that legal?