Quote:
Originally Posted by TallBob
I was hoping for one of the buildings to be in the 30+-story range. Looks OK. What's with the skyway? Isn't the reason for a lot of this development is to get people on the street or in the park?
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I think the driving force is that the Vikings and the local governing body for the sports facilities want the new stadium to be connected to the skyway, like Target Field is on the other side of downtown.
Another reason skyways are attractive is that they increase commercial revenues since rents on the 2nd floors of skyway-connected buildings are as high and sometimes higher than street-level rents.
In any case, the new park should provide lots of incentive for people to be on the street, since the area is currently just a sea of parking lots. This one development alone will transform 5 full city blocks. Combined with the new stadium, the whole area will look dramatically different in 3 years.
It's also odd that this proposal from Ryan construction is so far along and Wells Fargo has yet to sign on the dotted line. It may be that WF hasn't yet decided upon how much space they will need here. There is an interesting difference between the revealed plan and what Ryan
says to the city's Zoning Committee about its plans:
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The initial proposal include(s) about 300 residential units, 1.2 million square feet of office space in two towers, 40,000 square feet of retail, a parking ramp, skyway connections to downtown, and a park spanning two city blocks."
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The “maximum” development scenario calls for 2.9 million square feet of office space, 335 residential units, or 275 residential units and a 150-room hotel, 105,000 square feet of retail and 2,725 parking spaces."
-- From the StarTribune