Nicollet-Lake - greater Kmart area

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Realstreets
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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby Realstreets » August 29th, 2014, 8:08 am

My reasoning for making this short stretch transit only has much more to do with placemaking and local walkability than it does for transit performance.
This. We just don't have a track record of building streets which accommodate cars while simultaneously being an effective framework for a place. If we could build shared space or 9 foot lanes or something, maybe cars could be a part of the mix on this block. Until we prove that can be done, I think we need to push for a car-less block from 29th to Lake.
And in the event that we can eventually accomplish building shared spaces can we turn it back to a street that allows cars? NACTO design guidelines allow 10 ft. lanes. I don't know what the street mix should be but I think a transit corridor is inappropriate for Nicollet. Furthermore, what are all these bus routes that are going to use this transit corridor?

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby twincitizen » August 29th, 2014, 8:13 am

I'm not sure why you are calling it a "transit corridor". We're talking about a 1 block stretch that doesn't allow cars, for the sake of better placemaking. Transit, bicycles, pedestrians, and emergency vehicles would all be able to move through the space. Just not SOVs. Better transit and better placemaking, due to the absence of left turn lanes and vehicle stacking.

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Realstreets
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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby Realstreets » August 29th, 2014, 9:27 am

Sorry, I meant transit mall. And I actually thought what was being proposed would be for all of eat street. So I take back what I said. :oops: I don't have strong feelings either way about just that one block. Although keeping it closed to SOV will likely help maintain the auto-centric designs of 1st and Blaisdell.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby twincitizen » August 29th, 2014, 10:09 am

That's very true. I believe the entire Whittier neighborhood needs a comprehensive traffic study. We're doing all of these things piecemeal, including 35-Lake, opening Nicollet, one-way pairs on Blaisdell/1st, one-way pairs on 26th/28th, etc. None of it is being looked at comprehensively at all.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby TroyGBiv » August 31st, 2014, 7:37 pm

I've lived in Whittier for decades and I would totally agree with Twincitizen is right - we haven't had a comprehensive plan for this area for years and we are missing a huge opportunity to coordinate all of these projects.

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TommyT
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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby TommyT » September 18th, 2014, 12:23 pm

SuperValu at Lake and NIcollet to close.

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... chase.html

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby grant1simons2 » September 18th, 2014, 2:21 pm

I really hope that when Jerry's says they want to build a bigger store that they want to make it multi use maybe

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby twincitizen » September 26th, 2014, 11:06 am

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_ ... =hottopics

Kmart is closing 3 more Twin Cities locations (Anoka, Blaine, Burnsville) and another in St. Cloud. Oakdale closed earlier this month and several others closed in 2011.

This leaves just 3 stores operating in the Twin Cities, including Nicollet-Lake.

At what point do the economics/supply chain/distribution no longer make sense for them to operate this location, even if it is very successful on its own?

According to Google Maps, they have a distribution center in Shakopee.

EDIT: Also, oddly enough, the three remaining stores in the Twin Cities are the three most urban locations they ever had in MN: Lake Street, 35E-Maryland, and Robert Street (Signal Hills). The Robert Street one has a lot of nearby competition, including a Walmart Supercenter and SuperTarget, but I could see the Mpls & StP ones continuing to survive based purely on lack of competition and "captive" customer bases.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby mattaudio » September 26th, 2014, 11:16 am

Depends on if they share distribution with the numerous Sears department stores and small-town Sears franchises (more like hardware + houseware stores) or if they are still on their own.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby Tcmetro » September 26th, 2014, 11:22 am

The three stores left in the Twin Cities are Nicollet-Lake, Robert St, and 35E-Maryland. A quick Google Maps search shows quite a few outstate stores left, and the presence of the distribution center in Shakopee suggests that they are facing too much competition in the metro, but perhaps are doing okay outstate.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby Mdcastle » September 26th, 2014, 12:47 pm

If you look at what Sears / Kmart is doing they have no real long term plan for survival, what they're doing is going along selling choice assets to keep operating on fumes as long as possible. Likely they can get a lot more money for the property if an operating store gets taken as opposed to a vacant store.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby twincitizen » September 26th, 2014, 1:27 pm

Agreed, it really does seem like they have no turnaround plan at all. Sears at least seems like a salvageable brand. I'm no retail/branding expert, but what I'd do right now is kill off Kmart entirely and just convert the remaining successful locations to Sears. Sears at least has a different niche, and provides a few different things, whereas Kmart simply cannot compete with Target and Walmart. Based on local evidence, Kmart only succeeds where Walmart and Target are not present. I expect the Robert Street Kmart will close relatively soon too. If Kmart were not closer to StP's West Side and the concentration of poverty there (Target & Walmart are a few blocks further south on Robert), it would be closed already.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby maxbaby » September 26th, 2014, 3:25 pm

I think that Kmart distribution center has been closed for a while now.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby uptowncarag » September 26th, 2014, 3:46 pm

I think the K-Mart in Dundas/Northfield is still open and it does quite well.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby grant1simons2 » October 1st, 2014, 3:30 pm

Cost appraisal and environmental assessment on the parcel of the Kmart lot this fall if approved by the City Council on Friday

twincitizen
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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby twincitizen » October 6th, 2014, 3:30 pm

An update on Sullivan's SuperValu site: http://www.southwestjournal.com/news/bi ... e-nicollet

Also, a Google search confirmed that the distribution center in Shakopee did close in Jan. 2013. Where the nearest one is now, I have no idea, but that has to mean something...there's just no way they will continue to operate 3 (probably soon 2) Kmart stores in the Twin Cities, is there?

11 stores remain statewide, and are pretty durn spread out, from International Falls to Rochester, and Moorhead to Duluth: http://www.kmart.com/stores/minnesota.html

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby Lancestar2 » October 8th, 2014, 1:26 pm

An update on Sullivan's SuperValu site: http://www.southwestjournal.com/news/bi ... e-nicollet

Also, a Google search confirmed that the distribution center in Shakopee did close in Jan. 2013. Where the nearest one is now, I have no idea, but that has to mean something...there's just no way they will continue to operate 3 (probably soon 2) Kmart stores in the Twin Cities, is there?

11 stores remain statewide, and are pretty durn spread out, from International Falls to Rochester, and Moorhead to Duluth: http://www.kmart.com/stores/minnesota.html

Thanks for the update! Is there any chance that Kmart is no longer committed to this location? Could it be they may be trying to seek a buyout? Perhaps they could still manage effective trucking routes by combining Kmart shipments into the Sears shipping routes, or decreasing shipments per week? Either way does Kmart lease or own this space? Surly Hy-vee, Target and Walmart are both watching this story develop right?

Does anybody know of any Kmart store that recently was improved or built? Besides the Sear's Grand stores that were converted back into Kmarts I have not heard of any such investment before. Can they honestly be considering being a part of this redevelopment? Just the logistics of setting up a new stores is going to cost a lot of money! How many more stores will have to be closed to free up funds to invest in the Lake St. Kmart? Are sales here that good for Kmart that they would still be seriously considering being a part of the future redevelopment?

Imagine a Hy-vee or an Urban Super Target with a direct Greenway trail to beautiful rows of bike parking! :D Talk about encouraging biking!

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby TroyGBiv » October 8th, 2014, 10:38 pm

Kmart has shrunk so much over the years and they have been hacking away at any and all underperforming stores it is unlikely that they had any plans to work on this... Kmart had become Big Kmart in the late 1990's through about 2002. The investments then were considered a Hail Mary pass... they have closed many of those "newer" stores all across the country - so they are really more concerned about supporting the stores with the best sales. The negotiating that is going on is about how the Kmart on Lake has had no investment in decades but it is generating decent sales - what they want is to leverage their current position to get the city to "invest" in updating and including their store in the master plans. They don't have a great negotiating position as they don't own the property... but they do have a 50 year lease with the property owners which has some negotiating advantages... Kmart tried to throw a twist into this project last year when they claimed that when the city started calling that block "blighted" they were making a statement about the Kmart brand and were causing them harm... But from a legal point of view a judge would throw that out very quickly. So they seem to have dropped that strategy, at least for now.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby min-chi-cbus » October 9th, 2014, 7:08 am

Wasn't the city basically trying to use eminent domain to procure the site? When the word "blighted" gets thrown around property owners/tenants have a reason to be concerned. I'm not on Kmart's side whatsoever but I guess I can see why they would react strongly to that word.

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Re: Lake & Nicollet Redevelopment (Kmart site)

Postby HiawathaGuy » October 9th, 2014, 2:22 pm

Wasn't the city basically trying to use eminent domain to procure the site? When the word "blighted" gets thrown around property owners/tenants have a reason to be concerned. I'm not on Kmart's side whatsoever but I guess I can see why they would react strongly to that word.
So you don't have to dig: http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/255211171.html

Biggest point of conflict... "The land beneath the site is owned by New York investor Lawrence Kadish. In their letter, the Kmart executives said they have a long-term lease on the property that is renewable through 2053."


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