The completion of the “Green Line” has the urban planning dorks dreaming big again.
Next up for Saint Paul – an “urban village” on Snelling by University, where the old MTC Bus Barn used to be. It’ll be 4+ stories, the usual dog’s breakfast of “mixed-use” buildings a minimum of four stories tall, full of all of the “new urbanist” fads like “pedestrian friendly” spaces and “open spaces” that scream “crime-friendly!” to anyone who’s been paying attention.
The refreshing part? The consultants who are, er, consulting on the project admit up front it’s going to be exquisitely expensive:
The verdict? Those plans may be doable, but they won’t be cheap.
The report by Urban Investment Group, RNL and KHO Consulting examined potential development arrangements for the Snelling-Midway “SmartSite.”
The consultants found a $22 million to $31 million gap between today’s market value of the site and the cost of necessary new infrastructure, including $40 million in needed structured parking, as the land is redeveloped in phases.
The report encourages a mix of building types and uses, most of them at least four stories tall, with open spaces and pedestrian amenities to create the feel of an urban village.
It suggests a variety of approaches to close the funding gap, including tax-increment financing and grants and loans.
They’re suggesting a “public-private partnership”, which inevitably means large, rent-seeking “private” companies that are deeply in bed with government, building to a plan that has nothing to do with what the market demands but merely tries – at immense taxpayer expense – to skew the market toward the government’s (politically-driven and ultimately futile) plan.
Think Galtier Plaza, Riverplace, Saint Anthony Main, The Conservatory, Mississippi Live…
If St. Anthony Main resulted, it might be bearable. But I suspect a chuck of the mixed use will be low-income apartments. Based on Dale/Uni, low income apartment dwellers don’t shop at Wicks N Stiks, they shop at Discount E-Cig and Fantasy Nails and visit Non-Profit Do Gooder offices. Snelling/Uni will not be UpTown with that in place.
.
It is SO refreshing to known my hard-earned dollars are going to finance someone else’s vision of Utopia. Can I get on the list to visit this place or do I have to get a ‘subsidy card’ first?
Remember 5+ or so years ago, maybe even longer, Home Depot wanted to have that spot.
Well, the new urbanists made it so difficult that Home Depot eventually gave up.
Just think, that spot could have had a thriving business for the last five years that would have employed people with decent jobs.
Ah, it’s the Metrodome biting us again. We built the Homer-Dome, left the old stadium site undeveloped and then spent a couple hundred million for the Zoo of America. Then we realized that retail was going to the Zoo and out of downtown, and we did Block E. But then we realized that the ZOA wasn’t the biggest in the world and was part vacant, so we built the Hiawatha Line, which made it even rougher on downtown retail, watched block E die, then we spend another cool billion on the Green Line, further depressing downtown, so now we need to spend a bunch on this…..somehow the idea of “stop” sounds appealing right now.
BB: You make is sound like our economic policies are just throwing good money after bad. Have you no faith in our elected off – oh, forget it.
Stinky; exactly, and I’d argue that it’s a chain of events, each mistake begetting the next.
BB: There’s not a city in America in which downtown retail isn’t dead or dying. I don’t think we can lay this at the feet of the trolley.
(The internet. In the conservatory. With a candlestick.)
mnbubba (greetings, ‘cuz!); I’m not arguing that it’s just the trolley, but rather that the trolley is one in a long series of mistakes that are plaguing the entire Twin Cities region. Businesses that might have withstood one shock (say the MOA) were not left standing after Hiawatha, tax hikes for new stadiums, etc.. And so the choice is to either put off the day of reckoning by doing new boondoggles, or to allow the system to collapse.
The former is less painful in the short run, the latter is less painful in the long run.
@BB (sentiments – backatcha)
“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate”.
Was true then… is true now.
Didn’t happen then… zero chance of it happening now.
So I go back to my proposition that there is much ruin in a great nation, and we will discover just how much.
“And so the choice is to either put off the day of reckoning by doing new boondoggles, or to allow the system to collapse.”
BB defines the madness of the whole darn thing. Liberals/Progressives are mentally unhinged, and downright dangerous.
Why is it that crossing the new light rail lane is virtually unnoticeable to the vehicle’s occupants, but driving the rest of St. Paul’s streets gives the impression of riding on railroad tracks?
I first noted this a while back when I was northbound on Hamline, crossing University. Give it a try …
Joe, I think you described about every roadway in the region. The tire, wheel, and alignment folks are probably making a killing.
Those bad roadways prove the need for light rail. Duh. Sigh.
BTW, Scott, regarding your comment about alignment and tire folks making a killing, the local GMC dealer here in Rochester offers an annual alignment service each spring to help car owners deal with the roads. So yes, exactly what you say is a reality, even for people whose vehicles are theoretically more able to handle the potholes.