Hopkins

[Korh]

This is really looking good. Wonder what some of the building may be and curious how low the speed limit on the street will be given how a new trail seems to cut across at a 45 angle.

[MNdible]

There were many things in that video rendering that looked *barely* designed. The video did it's job of getting people excited and getting them the project, but there's an awful lot that looks like it's not going to work particularly well. No doubt there will need to be significant changes before this actually gets built.

[Anondson]

Rezoning, Site plan, and PUD approved for phase A (220-ish units) of the Blake Road Station (770 units total)

Previous property owner gave tenants month to month leases for years. The new developer is committing to giving the 7 business owners of site A until October 31 to relocate.

Building B on schedule to begin summer 2022.

[Anondson]

Easy to blur the two big Hopkins sites being actively moved forward, but the Hopkins Commerce site finally closed.

https://finance-commerce.com/2021/09/ho ... -14m-plus/

The site A businesses are frantically looking for new locations in order to be out by end of October and demolition.

[alexschief]

Easy to blur the two big Hopkins sites being actively moved forward, but the Hopkins Commerce site finally closed.

https://finance-commerce.com/2021/09/ho ... -14m-plus/

The site A businesses are frantically looking for new locations in order to be out by end of October and demolition.

At your leisure, would you mind annotating an aerial from Google Maps or something so that those of us who aren't super familiar with Hopkins can follow along?

[Anondson]

Here's my go at it. I marked up an aerial image of Hopkins and took the liberty to include one Hopkins-adjacent proposal in Saint Louis Park.

Hopkins development 2021-upload by Eric Anondson, on Flickr

• Raspberry Ridge II is excavating right now. Nice to see a surface lot on Mainstreet bite the dust https://www.hopkinsmn.com/1066/Raspberry-Ridge-II
• Hopkins Apartments is still being ... refined. Losing the movie theater marquee in the center of downtown has generated lots of strong opinions on what goes there next https://www.hopkinsmn.com/1070/Hopkins-Apartments
• Vista 44 hasn't begun construction yet, https://www.beaconinterfaith.org/blog/h ... -vista-44/
• Rize on 7 is the former Prince of Peace church, and while in Saint Louis Park, it is literally on the border and that proposal pointed out it is in the vicinity of the Blake Road LRT station, so I feel like I wanna include it https://www.stlouispark.org/government/ ... /rise-on-7
• 325 Blake Road has yet to begin but has received full city and watershed district approval. Check out the video. https://www.hopkinsmn.com/1097/325-Blak ... ncept-Plan
• Blake Road Station, the Trilogy site is happening in phases, as noted. Site A begins this fall. There was a lot of consternation over the lost of a huge amount of affordable commercial spaces from this. The neighborhood is getting market rate apartments, nearly 90% reduction in commercial spaces. Something like a fully occupied 90,000 sq ft reduced to 11,000 sq ft., this corner already lost the mini retail strip for the LRT parking. At least the Alatus proposal at 325 Blake is adding something like 22,000 sq ft of restaurant space ... so far. https://blakeroadstationdevelopment.com/gallery/ and https://www.hopkinsmn.com/1059/Blake-Road-Station
(My dream is for an urban scale grocery store to show up close to the Blake Road LRT station)

The Eagle Ridge Partners so far was only shown to a city council work session. The offices have been barely occupied, this could be a major catalyst to the commercial corners of South Hopkins a half-block to the west. Long walk to an LRT station from here because of the UNFI warehouses. https://finance-commerce.com/2021/05/ho ... kins-site/

Not quite the concentration of activity that the Opus Station just to the south in Minnetonka, but it is something.

I'm still furious over the NIMBY victory killing the Artspace artist housing 1 block north of Mainstreet that would have replaced an underused municipal surface lot.

[alexschief]

Super helpful, thanks!

[Anondson]

It was fun to make!

[MNdible]

Minor point, but isn't the Hopkins Apartment site actually 'L' shaped, retaining the existing retail building on that block?

[Anondson]

True.

I think I ended mentally drawing the box around the existing retail because it owned by the same developer of the theater. The site plans have sometimes included the existing retail to show the thoughtful ways the whole block will be integrated.

[fehler]

Nice. Add the new LRT stations for clarity, too.

[Anondson]

The site plan for 325 Blake Road is downloadable, was submitted Oct 22, it says.

https://www.325blakeroadn.com/blog/blog-post-one-lua

Minor point of notice, tower was described as 15-stories now, previously I heard is said to be 14. My understanding is the council and staff were receptive to the tower.

I intend on attending the Nov 15th public meeting to give feedback. I’m feeling very positive so far, minor pedestrian-realm concerns.

[Anondson]

This was shared on Twitter. A really useful visualization of Hopkins’ land value per acre.

https://www.arcgis.com/home/webscene/vi ... 278,52.137

Zoom in and out, pan around.

Neat to see the massive lot expensive houses to the north are some of the lowest value per acre, but the almost traditional-size lots of Interlachen Park (for single family homes) are among the taller.

The newer apartment buildings downtown stand out. And it will be fascinating to see Blake Road change in the future with the huge developments happening over the next 5 years.

[John21]

Great map up there, Anonodson. Hopefully those projects come to fruition.

[Anondson]

Demolition of the building on Site A of the Blake Road Station project began today, finally.

[DanPatchToget]

Nextdoor post reporting that McCoys, the gas station behind/next to Pizza Lucé, closes tomorrow permanently as the owner has sold the property to a developer.

Has there been any recent news on that site? I went there a couple days ago to take some photos since it has a telephone booth with the phone still attached. You don't see those everyday.

[Anondson]

Haven’t seen anything about it beyond a concept a city vision imagine a development that combined the Lucé parking lot with the McCoy property due to the extensive pollution under it.

The concept proposed making the McCoy parcel parking and building multiple small commercial on the Lucè lot. Turning the Lucé property into a continuous commercial block and the polluted McCoy property the parking for the commercial businesses.

I think it holds promise and would improve Blake Road as the Trilogy project decimated the amount of commercial spaces Blake Road will have in a supposed TOD station area.

[HiawathaGuy]

Phase 2 of the residential portion SW of the tracks & Blake road has been announced.

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... ation.html
*UNLOCKED*

Phase 1 began construction in Dec. with a 220 unit apartment & 2100 sq ft of retail. Phase 2 will include a 250 unit apartment & 10,000 sq ft of retail. Phase 3 is proposed to begin between 2026 - 2031 (seems very odd) and will offer 300 more apartments.

[Anondson]

The crane went up for phase 1. The lower level started getting poured.

I have the commission feedback that the plans for the landscaping at the corner should be backed off to allow bikes an easier ability to turn.

[Anondson]

At the public meeting for phase 2, I heard some of the staff mention they have been in recent negotiations to acquire the former-Arby’s and the Sambusa King building.

The Arby’s property owner has been … demanding.