North Loop apts move forward, one more tower proposed in Downtown East
- 728 4th – 728 4th St. S. – Ryan Companies
Ryan Companies is bolstering its plans for Downtown East with another office tower, this time a 17-story building proposed for a small slice of land near U.S. Bank Stadium. The downtown-based developer, which is building out the area with the 17-story Wells Fargo towers, the Commons park and its own new headquarters building, has submitted plans to the City Planning Commission’s Committee of the Whole. Ryan won the rights to develop the site from the City of Minneapolis back in 2014 and initially proposed apartments and a Radisson Red hotel, but the project didn’t move forward and the developer relocated its hotel plans.
- U.S. Bank Stadium – 900 5th St. S. – Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority
After more than two and a half years of construction, work on U.S. Bank Stadium is nearly complete. The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority recently announced that the new home of the Minnesota Vikings is substantially complete, a milestone that wasn’t planned for another six weeks. The MSFA and Vikings will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the stadium on July 22. There will also be open houses on July 23-24 and a weekend-long festival. The Vikings also announced more than 40 Minnesota artists have begun installing arts throughout the stadium as part of 350 original commissioned pieces and 250 pieces of framed photography that will be in the building by late August.
- 200 Central – 200 Central Ave. SE – Alatus
The City Council unanimously approved actions of its Zoning & Planning Committee, which overturned several appeals to a recent Heritage Preservation Commission decision regarding a planned 40-story tower near the Minneapolis riverfront. The developer, Minneapolis-based Alatus, still needs to go through land use application approvals for the site. Plans call for a tower with more than 200 condos, a restaurant from restaurateur Ryan Burnet and underground parking. Alatus now has the necessary approvals to move ahead with demolishing the Washburn-McReavy Funeral Home and the St. Anthony Athletic Club on the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood site.
- 721 1st – 721 1st St. N. – Solhem Companies
The City Planning Commission has approved Curt Gunsbury’s plans for a new North Loop apartment building with a condition that the developer must work with local businesses to find a solution to the area’s parking demand. Acme Comedy Co., comedians and several nearby residents had circulated a petition opposing the project and filed an appeal, but the City Council’s Zoning & Planning Committee denied it in June. Gunsbury’s Solhem Companies is proposing to build a 124-unit apartment building on a surface parking lot in the high-demand neighborhood. The approximately six-story building — technically seven with a partial mechanical floor — would also feature about 220 enclosed and surface spots for residents and Gunsbury’s nearby office tenants.
- Spectrum Apartments & Townhomes – 8th Street & 9th Avenue – CPM Companies
CPM Companies is making progress on a new apartment and townhome project proposed for the north end of the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood near the University of Minnesota. The City Planning Commission approved the developer’s plans for a three-building complex consisting of a 102-unit apartment building and two three-story buildings with a total of 16 walk-up townhomes. CPM is proposing to demolish a few homes, two Quonset huts and a loading area across five parcels. Current plans have shifted away from a two-phase project with two apartment buildings that the developer was planning earlier this year.
- YouthLink expansion – 41 N. 12th St. – Project for Pride in Living
The City Planning Commission has approved YouthLink’s plans for an expansion to its facility near downtown Minneapolis. Through a partnership with Project for Pride in Living, the downtown homeless youth center would build a new five-story, 17-unit residential addition to its facility near Loring Park. The addition would have 46 beds grouped into ten quad units with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities, along with eight studios and a one-bedroom unit for a resident advisor. Residents would have access to support services through YouthLink and a Career Pathways center.
- 205 Park – 205 Park Ave. S. – City of Minneapolis
The city recently released the names of the developers that are proposing to build on the city-owned parcel a few blocks from U.S. Bank Stadium. Sherman Associates is proposing a six-story, 115-unit building that will be 80 percent market-rate apartments and 20 percent affordable housing for those making 60 percent of or below area median income. Plans for the nearly $36 million project also feature four roughly 2,000-square-foot for-sale townhomes and new concepts from restaurateur Kim Bartmann. Grand Real Estate Advisors is proposing 48-52 for-sale units of housing, which would range from 952-2,803 square feet and would go for prices between about $340,000 and $1.3 million. The five-story or six-story building would feature approximately 2,900 square feet of retail space fronting Washington Avenue.
- TCF Building – 801 Marquette Ave. – Franklin Street Properties
Franklin Street Properties has released a new rendering of the former TCF Building that may reveal what the Massachusetts-based real estate investment firm plans to do with the building now that it has scrapped a tower proposal. For several months the firm has been looking into a 50-story tower project that could have included apartments, a full-service hotel and office space to replace the four-story, century-old building. The new image, released in a filing the firm made to the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, shows a renovation that would bring windows into the arches. The firm said in the filing it plans to spend $15 million to $18 million to remodel the building. TCF Bank has relocated more than 1,000 employees from downtown to Plymouth.
- 3rd redesign – 3rd Avenue between 1st and 16th – City of Minneapolis
Construction has begun on 3rd Avenue in downtown Minneapolis to turn the popular thoroughfare into a four-lane road with new bike lanes. The City Council passed a $3 million redesign in the spring to remove the street’s planted medians to make room for additional lanes. New bike lanes will have plastic posts or bollards separating bikes and cars, rather than the lanes separated by planters that some council members supported. Construction is expected to be completed in 2017. Downtown is seeing several road redesigns with Hennepin Avenue, 1st Avenue and Nicollet Mall getting changes in the next few years.
- Plaza Seven – 45 S. 7th St. – Franklin Street Properties
Franklin Street Properties, the real estate investment trust that looked into redeveloping downtown’s TCF Building into a mixed-use tower, recently announced it has acquired the Plaza Seven office tower. The 36-story tower includes hotel, retail and Class A office spaces, but the Massachusetts-based firm only acquired the office and parking components as part of the $82 million deal. The firm will be putting nearly $2 million worth of investments into the building over the next four years, according to a news release. The building is 97 percent leased with the biggest tenant being PricewaterhouseCoopers, which recently moved from the Capella Tower to occupy 20 percent of Plaza Seven’s 325,000 rentable square feet.