urbanMSP

Cullen LLC recently was approved by the city zoning and planning commissions to build a 5-story 20 unit (all 4 bedroom units) near the University of St. Thomas campus. Construction is anticipated to begin sometime this fall.

It's been approved, but a one-year development moratorium has been enacted in the "west Grand Ave". From my understanding, Cullen LLC was looking to develop a second similar style building on the same block. Neighbors, as anyone on this forum would have guessed, flipped out.

Two things worth checking out:

Streets.mn Podcast – The Future of Student Housing with Andrew Hasek - http://www.streets.mn/2012/09/18/street ... rew-hacek/

The problem with the problem of student housing - http://www.streets.mn/2012/04/24/the-pr ... t-housing/

Improve Grand Ave? What a travesty!

20 units with 4 bedrooms each = 80 bedrooms. So that could house between 80 to 160 students.
That's kind of a big deal.

Is there a limit on number of unrelated persons per dwelling in St Paul like there is in Minneapolis? In Minneapolis you'd only be able to have 5 people in each unit, so 100 students max.

I thought it was 4 unrelated persons in MPLS.

I've definitely had 5 in a unit, and the landlord was definitely above the board.

Vaguely looked it up.... Zoned R1-R3, three persons, R4-R6, 5 persons.

Beat me to it. I had a friend that had to leave a house because he was the sixth (or seventh, or eighth...) in St. Paul...

The ol' Brothel Law.

Construction has begun on this project. The two houses that occupied the area have been demolished and work is well underway.

Here's a pic from November 18th. Site was totally cleared, with plenty of equipment, but no digging or obvious foundation work. Looks like the 1/2 block of Finn Street just south of Grand may be closed during construction and used for staging.

They've got a website up:

http://www.grandandfinn.com/

Those renderings seem to have plopped the building into the middle of a forest with S-Class Mercedes frolicking about.

I'm glad St. Paul is getting their fair share of ugly cementious magi-pak apartments too!

Grand & Finn Apartments under construction by spectre 000, on Flickr


Grand & Finn Apartments under construction by spectre 000, on Flickr


Grand & Finn Apartments under construction by spectre 000, on Flickr

Those renderings seem to have plopped the building into the middle of a forest with S-Class Mercedes frolicking about.

and also according to that same picture, the newly planted street trees are 30+' while the urban forest in the background appears to be topping out at 120+'. That is some significant shrubbery.

Foundation work it starting to pop out of the ground on this one.

Construction status on 16 February

Related to five story buildings on Grand Ave:
http://finance-commerce.com/2013/06/st- ... t-heights/

Related to five story buildings on Grand Ave:
http://finance-commerce.com/2013/06/st- ... t-heights/

Someone with a subscription want to tell us if this is something more than St. Paulites hating density?