housing

How about something for average renters? Why does everything have to be upscale and luxury?

There are plenty of average rentals in this town ginny6. Everything is definitely not "upscale and luxury". There are rentals just down the street from the new tower in Loring going for $500 per month. They are small, but clean. You get what you pay for.

You look at other large cold weather cities like NYC, Boston, Chicago and almost all of the Canadian cities and they all have lots of residential towers in them. It's about time Minneapolis ..and St Paul have more.

At $1300+ per month, they are not looking for Lower-Middle Class tenants. The new downtown rentals are for folks that make $75-100k+/yr and above. Nobody is asking for slumlord buildings but maybe they could make a few buildings for people that can afford say $800-1,000+ per month. Fyi, 250k/pr year is not the "middle class" It's the people that make 75k/yr and less. 250k per year is wealthy.

Wish our city could get it together to put a small park or square in the middle of downtown where people could enjoy some trees. It's downright embarrassing how empty of green space downtown is for a city in the middle of Minnesota.

More green spaces, less towers.

Minneapolis already has highrise rentals for "average" renters. It's called Riverside Plaza. I'm all for providing housing to lower and middle income, but a beautiful looking building that actually ADDS something to the skyline isn't going to happen for $700 per month. Both Minneapolis and St. Paul are having a population revival, which we should all be cheering for after decades of negative growth. A strong urban core benefits everybody that lives in the metro area. Just look at Uptown Mpls or Lowertown St Paul to see what good things can happen when people with some money start moving back in.

It's worth noting that both of these towers are replacing surface parking lots. I'll drink to that! Unfortunately there are still acres and acres of surface parking in the downtown area, so let's hope these two buildings lease up quickly and next year we'll be reading about 2 or more additional towers.

TO: jaketwotimes, Oh yes we just saw what can happen when the city tries to spruce up Hennepin ave/Block E, it worked for about 18 months then the exodas began. How many of the new tenants will like the Warehouse drinking/fighting/shootings/pornography activity? And to be honest, it's the $75k-under population that tends to stay put in an area for longer term(stability), Were the "richer" folk are always looking to move around to something better or out into the burbs to start a family. This is a short term fix for a long term issue. Building high cost apartments won't solve the issue. And yes, I love the riverside colored panel apartments. The Uptown area is just converting apartments into Pseudo-Condos to make more money and the current tenants are being displaced. I have friends that are moving this month actually. $750/month will now cost $ 900+/month + they will now pay for water & garbage making the cost in the area of 950+/month. Really a 25+% increase??? Maybe we now need "Rent Control" instituted in Mpls. New York does it.

At least they're moving them away from campus where student loans continue to inflate tuition and provide false security to otherwise flat-broke students convincing themselves that they deserve luxury apartments.