Downtown Minneapolis - 3 New Towers + other projects - Page 2

TallBob · #21 Posted **Jun 21, 2012, 5:21 AM**

9 -story building at 4th & Nichollet. Kind of boring, very small. Waiting to hear some news about 10th & Nichollet! This thread really dried up..

Avian001 · #22 Posted **Oct 26, 2012, 4:22 PM**

Well, the 10th & Nicollet tower site was indeed purchased by Target. They have converted the existing building into an employee "party zone"

with a gym, meeting rooms, etc. So no new tower yet. But it has been said they bought the site to "park" it for future expansion of their HQ, perhaps 3-5 years off.

The 36-story apartment tower near Loring Park is about to start construction. Magellan just closed on it's loan yesterday, the site has been cordoned off,the signs are up and the construction trailer is in place.

Source

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The 5th & Nicollet tower is scheduled to break ground the first week of December:

Source

In addition, talks are underway for a new convention center hotel which is supposed to be "substantial" whatever that means.

The city is seeking bids for the $100 million Target Center renovation:

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http://www.targetcenterrenovation.org/

A renovation of an existing small building in Minneapolis is well underway and will become the Union Restaurant and nightclub. One of the largest retractable glass roofs (apart from a stadium!) in the Midwest is part of the project:

Source

Hines development is proposing a pair of towers - 24 & 26 stories - for 350 North Fifth Av in downtown Minneapolis across the street from Target Field and the LRT station. Occupancy for 2015. The office tower client is "confidential" but is rumored to be the National Marrow Donor Program. The NMDP has publicly stated they are looking for about 450,000 sq. ft. for a new HQ and are focusing on this site and one other nearby but we don't know if they have committed to a deal or not. It's unclear who/what will occupy the 2nd tower or if it is just a "phase 2" since it looks pretty generic and doesn't show up in the 2nd rendering below.

As of July 2012, there were nearly 11,000 units of housing under construction & proposed in the core cities of Minneapolis & St. Paul. So perhaps the 2nd tower is supposed to be for apartments. Several thousand units have already come on line in Minneapolis and yet the vacancy rate is still hovering around 2%.

Photos from Pickard-Chilton Architects Portfolio:

MNMike · #23 Posted **Oct 26, 2012, 8:53 PM**

Avian-I like that park rendering that you did of the Magellan tower...though it should be about a block to the right, directly behind the old hospital building. Just noticed that.

TallBob · #24 Posted **Oct 27, 2012, 5:41 AM**

That twin building Hines developement looks promising! Hope it ends up a little taller though.

Avian001 · #25 Posted **Oct 27, 2012, 6:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TallBob

That twin building Hines developement looks promising! Hope it ends up a little taller though.

There are more tall projects in the pipeline.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MNMike

Avian-I like that park rendering that you did of the Magellan tower...though it should be about a block to the right, directly behind the old hospital building. Just noticed that.

Thanks, yup you're right. I was first thinking it was directly west of the Loring Towers (the circular buildings) but later realized it was a half block south.

Another project is about to get underway. This is significant because it marks a return to the condo market after the crash. Called Park Vista, it will have 169 Units and be located across from Gold Medal Park in downtown Minneapolis and next to the new Izzy's Ice Cream factory going up right now:

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Here's a pic of Izzy's, designed by award-winning architect David Salmela:

Oh, and here's a construction shot of the Union Restaurant mentioned above, courtesy of "Spearson" over at UrbanMSP forums:

Here's a map of most of the projects going on in downtown Minneapolis only:

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Avian001 · #26 Posted **Nov 10, 2012, 7:51 PM**

Good news about the Nicollet Residences on 5th & Nicollet Mall. A sign has just gone up notifying the public that the parking lot is permanently closing on November 11th.

Aerial of the area. The red parcel is going to be the expansion of Xcel Energy's HQ :

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In addition, the fun Union Restaurant project on 8th & Hennepin is nearing completion. The basement will house a nightclub; restaurant on the main floor; Shea Design offices on 2; rooftop bar with retractable glass roof. It will be owned and operated by nearby CRAVE restaurant:

Photo by Spearson at UrbanMSP

Avian001 · #27 Posted **Nov 14, 2012, 8:25 PM**

Park Vista - mentioned above - has broken ground:

gmsalpha · #28 Posted **Nov 16, 2012, 1:11 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avian001

In addition, the fun Union Restaurant project on 8th & Hennepin is nearing completion. The basement will house a nightclub; restaurant on the main floor; Shea Design offices on 2; rooftop bar with retractable glass roof. It will be owned and operated by nearby CRAVE restaurant:

Photo by Spearson at UrbanMSP

Any chance of the street fronting The Union will ever get some trees planted? Doesn't really look like the sidewalks are wide enough, but it sure would make a difference.

The Union itself looks pretty darn cool, especially for the cold half of the year!

Avian001 · #29 Posted **Dec 14, 2012, 7:47 PM**

A few days ago it was announced that Ryan Companies is working a deal to buy 4 city blocks from the Minneapolis Star/Tribune newspaper next to the new Vikings stadium site. More info has come out today. Whatever it becomes, it sounds like it's going to be BIG (I said big, not necessarily tall). 1 million+ square feet of office + potential residential/commercial + public park.

From the articles it sounds like Wells Fargo could be the primary tenant. They are looking at the site for a new campus to consolidate downtown employees who are not already in the Wells Fargo Tower (which would remain as the regional HQ).

MinnPost Article

Business Journal Article

What this will hopefully do is psychologically connect the stadium to the core and get rid of 3 blocks of surface parking. In any case it will radically change Downtown East when combined with the new stadium and the Viking's plans for the blocks surrounding it.

Source

Chef · #30 Posted **Dec 15, 2012, 3:56 AM**

I'm really excited about this. Even if this doesn't turn out to be a major skyscraper it could be the spark that transforms downtown east. That area has been dead for decades, it cannot be overstated how big a deal this is.

Columbusite · #31 Posted **Dec 31, 2012, 1:01 AM**

Downtown East is sparser and more disjointed than the signature north-south streets, but you can easily bar hop between a dozen bars (You could easily get wasted just getting one drink at each place) and there are a few daytime spots (the book store, comic book store, and some restaurants come to mind, not to mention the Guthrie). Sure, there are still some gaps to fill in, but it's somewhat walkable and easily bikeable. It's more sleepy compared to the dense commercial street that it used to be that connected to Nicollet, but there are numerous signs of life, so I'm confused. Maybe a Downtown East bar hop is in order.

Avian001 · #32 Posted **Jan 12, 2013, 8:44 PM**

The good 'ol, sometimes unreliable, rumor mill is heating up in downtown Minneapolis. Thought I might as well post the statements. It would be great if it all came to pass but until the economy really moves forward I'm not going to hold my breath...

Rumors:

600 foot, 1,000 room hotel (I concur with the rumor. This has a very good chance of happening IMO. The City has been pushing for a large hotel for some time, and the prime piece of real estate across from the Convention Center would be available for it)

1,100 foot office, mixed use (Quite possible - the plans had already been made before the crash and Class A space downtown is in demand)

500 foot office; not counting crown (Another good possibility - I've heard the same thing from a different source)

350 foot office mixed use, no crown. (This may be referring to the proposed office tower near the Twins Stadium already noted above, but it could be another project altogether.)

Ryan Project: Two 300 foot mixed use, one 600 foot office; not counting crowns. (This is another possibility, though I suspect the heights will be lower IMO. The site has been purchased as noted above.)

10 construction towers downtown by 2014. (This probably includes the two apartment towers already under construction plus the new low-rise office building already schedule for Excel Energy at 4th & Nicollet. Image below)

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TallBob · #33 Posted **Jan 13, 2013, 8:03 AM**

I've been hearing these rumors for 6-7 years at least! I doubt anything will come from any of them.... a couple of these might be much smaller if they proceed at all! Hope I'm wrong though.

Avian001 · #34 Posted **Jan 14, 2013, 8:05 PM**

^ Yes, I have too. But we've been in a severe recession the last 5 years. What has changed is the economy. The Twin Cities are now at pre-recession levels in the GMP and employment rates. According to the sources there is pent-up demand for expansion. But yes, I'm still very cautious about these projects.

There is no question that Target is still expanding. Just today, another one of their vendors has had to re-locate to another office building downtown because Target has overtaken their space. I doubt any of the rumored buildings will be Target-occupied though.

Wells Fargo is consolidating employees scattered throughout another million square feet of office space downtown, so that's why it's assumed that the Ryan project will have WF as their primary tenant. These are mostly back-office jobs so people are speculating that the buildings, while large, probably won't be all that tall.

Apart from those cases, unless there is a dark horse in the race, I don't see much need for 2-3 million more square feet of Class A space, which is what we're talking about if all these projects come to pass.

But hey, it's a forum and if wishes were fishes...

newstl2020 · #35 Posted **Jan 18, 2013, 4:21 AM**

Just an update on the 5th and Nicollet tower.

Site Prep, demo, and excavation are complete and foundation work is well underway. Multiple Caissons have been completed already, and the base of the tower crane is in place.

Also, it appears as though this tower will be called, "The Nic" as that is what the site banners display.

TallBob · #36 Posted **Jan 19, 2013, 7:29 AM**

Was brousing over on SSP and it was mentioned 3 million sq. ft. needed by companies. Hopefully, these companies don't pack up and go to the "Burbs"! Also, where did this figur come from? Anyone?

Nordeast Homer · #37 Posted **Jan 19, 2013, 8:04 AM**

There is a pretty long list of companies on another site (urbanmsp) that shows a tally around that.
There are a couple of large law firms seeking 250-300k space each, Wells Fargo has two units 550k & 200k respectively, National Marrow Donor Program is seeking 450k, MoneyGram 150k, and the list goes on. Combine that with a large hotel and a couple of larger residential towers and we start to get into the 3,000,000 sq ft range.

Kittywhompus · #38 Posted **Jan 21, 2013, 4:16 AM**

[QUOTE]1,100 foot office, mixed use (Quite possible - the plans had already been made before the crash and Class A space downtown is in demand)[QUOTE]

I've been a lurker here for many years...Sorry! I've grown up here my whole life and anyone like myself knows there's a good chance that anything taller than the damn IDS Building is not very likely!

When Capella Building passed it by at least a foot years ago, then IDS decided to count their "window-washing shed" as height (now 790 feet).

If anything does pass IDS up they will come up with some other pathetic way of counting height! A higher shed, or counting the antennas as "spires" perhaps? Ha!

Seriously though, I believe I did see a pic of a proposal years ago of a new super-tall on the TCF part of downtown. Maybe this is a new proposal altogether (future Target Tower or a new location)? One could only hope!

I always thought an 1100 foot tower for downtown Mpls. would be a great and ideal height to stand out and also compliment the great three!

TallBob · #39 Posted **Feb 19, 2013, 7:54 AM**

Was lurking over at SSP and an official from Ryan Co's. had a 2 1/2 minute video about a lot of potential developement proposals for DT Minneapolis over the next 12-18 months. I hope it happens.

Avian001 · #40 Posted **Mar 4, 2013, 3:24 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TallBob

Was lurking over at SSP and an official from Ryan Co's. had a 2 1/2 minute video about a lot of potential development proposals for DT Minneapolis over the next 12-18 months. I hope it happens.

I think there will be at least a couple more large office towers U/C in downtown Minneapolis in a year or two. I don't think it's unreasonable to surpass the IDS Tower in height. Heck, it's about time! The issue is that the IDS gets a chunk of money from the broadcast antennas on the roof. So the owners lobby against anything taller. That's eventually going to go away though because it's pretty obvious that Minneapolis can support at least one supertall, given the current Class A metrics. If it was economically feasible 5 years ago (with the Ryan supertall on the TCF site) then it's going to be feasible again soon.

Downtown Minneapolis is interesting because the per-square-foot value of office buildings depends largely upon their proximity to Nicollet Mall. While the north end of the Mall is rather anemic, if I had 100 million bucks I'd venture a new office building on the empty lot across the street from the Library. The new -unimaginatively-named- Nic on Fifth, along with the new Excel HQ building at 4th & Nicollet will help to revitalize the north end of the Mall. A major office building across from the Library would help tie the Washington Avenue ING office buildings to the Core.