Everyone who's concerned about the possible loss of a funky, old
Dinkytown should keep in mind that the Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood
Association did a Master Plan ( a kind of small-area plan) about ten
years ago, and then backed it up with a land-use-specific set of
recommendations about re-development, all for the eastern section of
Marcy-Holmes, east of Interstate 35W/10th Ave SE, from University
Ave. SE to 8th St. SE, up to 15th Ave. SE or even several blocks
eastward from there.
The development we're seeing is not simply repetitive, in its
emphasis on three-to-five-bedroom undergraduate student apartments
with less than the one-half a parking spot for every bed the city
requires (in the U of MN area, about 15 years ago real estate agents
and landlords began advertising and renting not by the dwelling unit,
and not even by the bedroom, but by the bed). No one but
undergraduates would ever want to live in these units, and the rents
are steep for what you get. Students have NO IDEA of the exhorbitant
rents they're paying over here.
However, these new developments correspond to the plans the
neighborhood group envisioned: semi-high-rise student rental
buildings on the edges of the east-Marcy-Holmes area, on University
Ave. SE, 15th Ave. SE, 8th St. SE, to 10th Ave. SE on the west.
And that's precisely where all the development that's not in Stadium
Village has been occurring, while nobody much was watching,
precipitating an extraordinary and sudden change to the entire
streetscape of what surrounds or lies in Dinkytown:
1. The gigantic rental apartments Kelly Doran built behind and linked
to the Dinky Dome at 15th and University to 4th St. SE, which has a
CVS drug store on the ground floor; many small buisinesses bellied up
for that project.
2. and 3. Gigantic dorm-like structures have been built in the last
four or five years at 17th and Univerity Ave. SE and at 16th and 4th
St. SE. (the latter replaced the U's Klaeber Court faculty office
building).
4. Huge apartment complex that almost caused the tearing down of the
contiguous historic Florence Court Apts. at 10th Ave. SE and
University Ave. SE.
5. Kelly Doran tore down the old First Methodist Episcopal Church at
5th St. SE and 12th Ave. SE, for a student apartment complex.
6. Steve Minn tore down four single-family homes and an old store,
plus a line of 1880s townhouses on 11th Ave. SE, to build student
housing on 8th St. SE from 10th to 11th Aves. SE (Marcy Park Aps.).
7. Steve Minn recently tore down a 1960s fraternity on 4th St. SE
just behind the historic Cutter House at 400 10th Ave. SE, for a
tightly-squeezed-in student housing structure (uses the neighbor's
trees as part of the required "green" on his site).
8. The 1870s red-brick Kearsarge Apts--a line of formerly elegant
three-bedroom townhouses up from the corner of 15th Ave. SE and 5th
St. SE, has been retained, but several buildings behind it are being
destroyed (a fine old yellow-brick is going) for a four-or five-story
student apartment complex that will be linked to the historic
Kearsarge Apts. by hallways.
9. At 7th St. SE and 15th Ave. SE, a number of 1880s houses are being
demolished for another student residence structure, with surface
parking lot along 7th St. SE. (this was just approved by the Planning
Commission)
10. On the north side of 8th St. SE, from 14th Ave. SE westward, a
developer has built some cooky-cutter "rustic" townhouses in the last
five or six years, with many bedrooms per unit, for student rentals.
11. There's the atrocious student residence built by Mueller in the
1990s on the former Maria Sanford house quarter-block, on the
Northeast corner of 14th Ave. SE and 6th St. SE (five or six bedrooms
per unit, rented by the bed, with bath, tiny kitchen with a small
common space--even undergrads don't like the building and I hear it's
hard to rent, even though it's very close to the East Bank campus.
12. A gigantic undergraduate residence built where a Pizza Hut was
(and an 1860s brick garage for wagons where once there was a
blacksmith!) at 13th Ave. SE and University Ave. SE.
13. The tear-down of the former Marshall High School at 14th Ave. Se
and 5th St. SE, for student housing on the east side of that whole
block; the new grocery store is planned for it.
14. The Opus proposal we're now talking about , taking a block of
Dinkytown businesses for student apts.
15. [I almost forgot] The high-rise 1960s concrete bunker built for
student housing at 13th Ave. SE and 5th St. SE--several
gorgeous19th-c. homes taken for that.
14. The Veiths plan to put student housing on the SW corner of 10th
ave and University Ave. SE, I believe (haven't seen plans yet)--right
on the freeway apron.
And that, folks, is just off the top of my head! (And not including
the student residence going up on the former Grandma's lot on the
West Bank, etc., or anything of the massive student housing built in
the west part of Prospect Park--called Stadium Village!)
All this in Dinkytown accords pretty much with the plan and
suggestions laid out by the neighborhood association, to keep student
housing near the campus. Banks easily lend money to student-residence
developers because they are convinced that the rental population is
among the most stable in the Twin Cities area--Kelly Doran went
spinning right through the recent recession, because he focused on U
of MN student housing and had little trouble raising money for it.
There's also quite a bit of public money to be had, if one can
convince the powers that be that undergraduate U of MN students are
an impoverished population that deserves Affordable Housing subsidies.
What's different about the Opus plan is that it intends to remove an
entire block that's currently zoned commercial (C-I, I think) and
make it high-density residential/mixed use. That change in zoning is
not, I believe, in the MHNA redevelopment suggestions.
If Opus proceeds, they will take the only off-street parking
available in Dinkytown, which is the lot behind Hanson's and The Book
House, so that Dinkytown will be extremely hostile to motor traffic
coming from anywhere but the nearby student rentals. ( The U Tech
tear-down/re-development will take the UTech parking lot.) Small
local businesses, like the many dozens of start-ups being incubated
in the UTech bruilding that's being torn down, will be uprooted,
maybe killed because of the stiff new rents on the ground floors of
new mixed-use buildings (The experience of Erbert and Gerbert's
sandwich shop is breathtaking, re rents!).
So far, no one knows what the MHNA thinks of the Opus proposal. But,
from my memory of what the association proposed for re-development
away from the "core" of valuable 19th-c. mansions west of the
freeway, all this is consistent with their suggestions.
Drive over some time, and see the changes.
(The Como neighborhood is zoned quite differently than Dinkytown
is--for low-density housing--and so far, our streetscape has stayed
relatively the same--there are no massive private student dorms here.
Yet.)
Connie Sullivan
Como, in East Minneapolis