urbanMSP

More than Chicago? Huh!

And Seattle not even on the list? Feels sus.

I'm wondering how we are defining downtown areas. Bigger downtowns will have more opportunities to build. Think of how much including North Loop or St Anthony neighborhoods would change the numbers.

According to the table halfway down this page, they did it by ZIP code. Which I can't blame them for, that's how the data is available, but it leads to weird borders. For Minneapolis, they used 55401, 55402, and 55415, which are all entirely inside the downtown freeway loop, but to get Loring Park and Elliot Park included they also had to include 55403 and 55404, which meant that they also scooped up big chunks of Whittier and Phillips (and Lowry Hill, but that, well, didn't impact the numbers much). Looks like similar things happened with Denver and Atlanta, the only other cities on the list where I've visited enough that I know where the approximate boundaries of "downtown" are.

If anything, looking at the zip codes shows that Jersey City is far and away the winner, building their 10.2k units in a single, barely one mile square ZIP code.

I am not familiar with YardiMatrix as a data source. But, the difficulty of stats like these is that every city's "downtown" has a different definition- impacting how that data may be compiled. Making comparisons between cities pretty difficult. Same with downtown populations... where does a downtown end and surrounding neighborhoods begin?

The data is still very interesting none-the-less, fun to look at and thanks to Nathan for finding/posting!

Did anyone attend the “Warehouse District Live” event this weekend?

https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/war ... nneapolis/

Did anyone attend the “Warehouse District Live” event this weekend?

https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/war ... nneapolis/

No, and from that second picture in the article, it doesn't look like anyone else did either. Just about everyone in that picture looks like they are wearing a volunteer t-shirt...

LMAO at that photo

Remarkable that they went through all of the trouble to organize this and then didn't tell anybody it was happening.

I know who organized this, and kind of surprised it was such a dud. Guessing the client wanted it to happen on short notice.

There have been a few post about residential conversions, something I see as a potentially great thing for the long term health of dt.
There are these bigger buildings:
-- Alex mentioned 801 Nicollet, that one seems obvious
-- Medical arts Building, also seems obvious.

But a lot of B/C space is in the former warehouse buildings, and my guess is parking is a major hurdle in converting them. But imagine 1st ave/the warehouse district with a bunch a residential. What a huge improvement that would be...
Examples:
251 1st ave N
300 1st ave n
123 N 3rd st
126 N 3rd st
312 3rd St S
This building is smaller, but they went with an office renovation instead of residential. Why?
https://www.elementmn.com/listing/21-third-street-north

Per LoopNet, Medical Arts is less than 25% vacant. As the name suggests, it has a pretty particular niche and doesn't really compete with the overall office market. Not to say that won't change, but for now there are properties that would seem to be much riper for conversion.

https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cities ... olis-lease
" The 801 Restaurant Group will bring its 801 Fish concept to US Bancorp Center at 800 Nicollet Mall, according to an Axios source who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss the deal publicly."
"801 Fish is taking up the 9,100 square foot space formerly occupied by McCormick & Schmick's"
I feels like the CBD is a very mixed bag

Wasn't really sure where to post this observation, but this seemed like the best fit.

I'm a mostly remote worker these days, but we had an in-office event yesterday so I drove in just before noon and parked in Ramp A. I was shocked by how empty it was. I didn't go up to a particularly high level and an entire half of the one I was on didn't have a single car. The other half was maybe 50 percent full? I ended up with a spot right next to the elevators. Checked out some of the lower levels it seemed kind of the same?

I dunno, maybe Ramp A is not representative? But I was blown away by how eerily empty it was. It also makes you realize how big that ramp is and how wasteful it now seems when it sits more empty than not on a weekday.

Reviving the conversation about office to residential conversions:

The Canadian Pacific Plaza tower has long and narrow floorplates. It was built in 1960 and despite recent renovations is probably not the city's most in-demand office space. Considering the likely merger with KCS, I assume that building will be losing its anchor tenant in the future. I can't speak to what its overall vacancy picture looks like, but it seems to check some big boxes for conversion.

I'd love to infiltrate a couple hundred residential units into the deadened office core of the downtown as well.

I've lurked on some LinkedIn conversations between commercial real estate brokers in other markets talking about either renovating office buildings back to Class A+ or converting to residential, and it takes a significant drop in the going rate per sq ft of office product before a residential conversion pencils out.

For instance, the conversation I was reading was between brokers in the San Francisco market, and while the current going rate for office was $500-1000 per sq ft, they didn't predict that residential conversion would start happening in any meaningful way unless a property was struggling to attract leases priced around $250 per sq ft or below.

So I imagine unless a building has major vacancy issues that outweigh the additional profit a commercial tenant brings in over residents, or is an older/historic building that would be impossible to modernize to the expected norm of Class A, that's part of the reason we're not seeing more of those right now. I would be interested to find out what our market's cost threshold is where we could better predict where a residential conversion would be likely to happen/make sense.

When you quote numbers like $250 or $500 per sq ft, are those rates per month? Per year? I'm struggling with that because those seem too high by orders of magnitude when I try to convert them into rents.

Great catch. Referring back to the conversation I had read, I believe those are the costs to purchase the property, not leasing rates. Sorry for the confusion, I read the thread a month ago and mixed up that detail.

Which I guess makes some sense as well - if you're in commercial real estate, more than likely you're not going to do a residential conversion. You're going to sell a depreciated or underperforming asset to someone else who will. And it would take a commercial property with a significantly lower asking price than market rate office for someone in the residential space to be able to enter the conversation.

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... ction.html

I wouldn't mind seeing the conference portion of this demolished. No idea who's going around buying hotel+conference models right now.

Hopefully someone with an eye towards residential conversion?

Not that I know anything, but I'd be surprised by a residential conversion. Seems like they refinanced and remodeled right before an large, unforeseeable, negative shock so maybe someone with less debt can make it viable.

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... ction.html

I wouldn't mind seeing the conference portion of this demolished. No idea who's going around buying hotel+conference models right now.

If it's in foreclosure, I'm sure someone will scoop it up for a bargain. Obviously that industry is down, but it's skyway connected to the Convention Center.