Post in A bad place for a good project

Jan 08 00:25 UTC

Oops. Put the wrong address on this before, but here it is for SPIF.
With all due respect to John Krenik, I think this Univ. Ave. site was
the first choice of Trader Joe's, and there is probably a better fit
for something else than the currently proposed TJ site at Lex/Randolph.

University Avenue would work better as an alternative location to
Highland for TJ, especially so if they could figure out a way to
jumpstart the Wellington condo development at Emerald and University
Avenues (it is a big vacant lot/hole today) near Hwy. 280; I'm
assuming what stalled this project is that the condo market dissolved
with the sub-prime mortgage effects on the real estate markets. Here
is their project website: http://www.themetrolofts.com/heard.cfm

A creative development change could make this location viable for
present market conditions and be an attractive site to TJ again; I'm
not sure what could happen now, but given the demand for affordable
housing, I'd like to see some sort of public/private partnership to
presell units dedicated to folks who would not normally be able to
vest themselves in real estate, e.g., the present victims of SPMs.
Sale prices would be held to some maximum by formula and residents
would retire any public debt from financing (TIF or something else?)
the project with monthly payments; over time, they would either cash
out and move up in the market or stay put and reduce their payments,
so it would be suitable for young folks or seniors. Wellington could
bail their project out and might even want to throw in with other
unsold but finished properties in the larger development towards
Franklin Ave. Any other ideas?

This site has few of the traffic concerns of the Highland site and is
just as strategically located (access from University Ave., I-94/Hwy.
280, and Franklin Ave) to serve St. Paul and the East and West Metro
(aside from that served by the TJ Woodbury and St. Louis Park sites),
as Lex. & Randolph Avenues. It will also be adjacent to the Westgate
Station of the Central Corridor Light Rail line. It is just a far
superior site for TJ, I think, so maybe they might facilitate some
sort of deal as well.