urbanMSP

From Minneapolis Business Journal and StarTribune.

Hennepin County Medical Center is building a $191 million, 322,000-square-foot medical clinic and specialty center downtown Minneapolis next to its campus.
The county board approved spending $10 million to buy a site directly across from the Emergency Department on Eighth Street between Park and Chicago avenues.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... nsion.html

http://www.startribune.com/blogs/255217741.html

Edit: Here is one more link from the Hospital itself. http://hcmcnews.org/2014/04/14/hcmc-pla ... wn-campus/


More exciting development news for Downtown. It will open in 2016.

I wonder if this is replacing the whole block or just the surface lot on the eastern half of that block?

I hope this doesn't include that 3 story brick apartment building. Otherwise, to hell with the rest of the block, great news!

Assume it it just the half-block parking lot for a moment roughly how many floors would 322,000 sq. ft. need?

The half block is 53,065 sf total. Assume some space would be dedicated to landscaping and other open space in accordance with the zoning code and you have maybe 40-45k floor plates, so at least 7-8 unless some of it is underground.

In general, hospitals like to build large floor plates and as few floors as possible.

It's going to have to be at least five or six stories no matter what to get the helipad above the surrounding buildings, unless they build a tower for the pad.

I think this would be a great location for the world's first Supertall Hospital. Hopefully the doctors over at HCMC "get it."

The aerial map seems to pretty strongly suggest that it's going to mean the whole block:

http://hcmcnews.org/2014/04/14/hcmc-pla ... te-aerial/

$191 million will not get you a supertall, but it will be a state of the art medical facility. I think there will be a good effort to make this a nice looking project. HCMC is not the most attractive complex in downtown and looks dated. They need to redeem themselves... lol

The article said it will consolidate specialties and various other health care services from nine buildings they either lease or own. I hope this offers an opportunity for some parcels they own outright to be sold near the new park and Stadium so they can be used for future development with more diverse uses. I think that's one of the best potential benefits of this project.

I doubt anyone remembers this but I had received some "inside" info about HCMC's plans, first consolidating many existing office functions in a new building while they renovate and redevelop some of the pre-existing space.

I don't know if this news validates this story completely, but it seems similar and I wonder if the next big project will be to address the existing campus.

FWIW, many modern medical facilities are more vertical in nature.

FWIW, many modern medical facilities are more vertical in nature.

Yes, this is true with the Cleveland Clinic (as you are well aware of) and many other medical facilities across the nation. The shorter, larger floor plates are more for inpatient hospital wards, whereas clinics, administrative offices, and specialty centers don't need quite as much horizontal space and can be built more vertically.

if only they'd include a bunch of cash to build a bunch of underground parking and then sell their ramps for revenue.

It's the whole block Goodbye walkable mixed-use building faces, hello blank walled single use facility. It's really going to be a bumer for the corner of 9th & Park, which has a nice feel to it with apartments on (almost) all 4 corners. I'd prefer they kept a setback for residential along 9th.

The block to be purchased is currently occupied by two commercial buildings, a small apartment building and two parking lots. Hayes said Monday that the commercial buildings will likely be leveled, but the apartment building could stay.

“We will work with the neighborhood in looking into that,” he said.

Read more: http://finance-commerce.com/2014/04/hcm ... z2yxLLEbcV

Time to get Elliot Park on the phone. That would be really cool if they not only saved the existing apartment building, but allowed for an additional residential building to be added to one (or both) of the corners along 9th.

The building, and the entire 9th street block face actually, lie in the South 9th Street Historic District

I actually toured this building when looking for apartments a couple years back and it's pretty run down inside. Almost seemed like a slumlord who owned it. Unfortunate to lose the building and it's charm, but not really much of a loss as far as the current state of the building goes.

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.9712,-9 ... DpjZSg!2e0

I actually toured this building when looking for apartments a couple years back and it's pretty run down inside. Almost seemed like a slumlord who owned it. Unfortunate to lose the building and it's charm, but not really much of a loss as far as the current state of the building goes.

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.9712,-9 ... DpjZSg!2e0

that's why preservation and restoration are important. the current state of management is not a good enough reason to tear down historic and affordable housing stock. this could be turned around in no time. the hospital could even repurpose it.

I too wonder if there's a way to incorporate some sort of screening. A megablock hospital is not a good neighbor to human-scale development, and I'm concerned the existing HCMC is going to significantly hold back development of the area between the Yard/Stadium, Thrivent, and Elliot Park.

On another note, I was at HCMC last Wednesday as part of the Hennepin Citizens Academy. I asked the Chief Medical Examiner if there were plans to develop the parking lot north of his building. He hesitated and hedged to his boss, as if there's something to announce but they weren't able to announce, and his boss answered with a boilerplate denial of anything in the works. But it sure sounded like there was something planned.

I also asked the CEO of HCMC after his presentation, and he offered a boilerplate denial (clearly this was in the works).

Wrong building, TommyT.

It's actually this one: http://goo.gl/maps/H1CUj

I'm not sure this building would be specifically protected by the 9th Street Historic District. It was built later (1915) than the period of significance (turn of the century). It's really nothing special. Rather than hard preservation of this specific building, I'd rather that HCMC simply leave the entire blockface along 9th for future residential (or mixed-use) development. The design guidelines of the 9th Street district should be somewhat strictly enforced.

I'm curious how much HCMC is engaging with city planners and Elliot Park Neighborhood before getting too far along in their concepts. The way it always seems to go is that they get a proposal drawn up before even talking to stakeholders, then it's too late to change anything when people raise objections. Elliot Park Neighborhood is acutely aware of the detrimental presence of HCMC's existing life-sucking blank walls and parking ramps, so I hope they get involved early and demand good street frontage, including the possibility of preserving a development parcel.

The building in question is indeed a contributing property to the Ninth Street Historic District. The formal cutoff actually appears to be 1915, the year this structure was built. Here is a map:
http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 266055.pdf

EDIT:
From F & C- looks like this will be the entire block EXCEPT the apartment building, though it still sounds like HCMC will own the property.
http://finance-commerce.com/2014/04/hcm ... expansion/