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On Monday, Mayor Michael Brown will deliver his most recent installment of the annual "State of the City" address. Read Tu-Uyen Tran's Herald article here.
Brown usually uses the speech to brag about several accomplishments of the past year and to introduce a couple of new proposals. I'm very interested to hear more about two of the proposals that Tran hints at in his article.
Both projects seem to involve the Alerus Center and its surroundings. One proposal is to develop 42nd Street into a "Destination Corridor." Nothing too new here, but I will be interested to see if Brown has any specific ideas that haven't been brought up before. This is something that the Alerus Center's new director Steven Hyman is pushing for. I'll be excited to see what Brown and Hyman can dream up over time.
The other proposal is a "transportation-related project" that would apparently link the Alerus Center to the Ralph Engelstad Arena. WHAT? ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THAT MONORAIL? That would be uber-cool!
Maybe that whole "New Horizons" plan didn't vanish into thin air like I thought it had...
In a little over a month, Barnes and Noble will no longer be a presence on the UND campus. As of April 1, B&N will relinquish management of the University Bookstore to Follett Higher Education Group. Follett is the nation's largest campus bookstore management company with more than 750 stores under their umbrella.
B&N's 10 year history at UND appears to have been, at times, inconsistent with what the campus and the community have desired in a bookstore like this. Many (including me!) have complained about their limited hours which seem to only get more limited with every passing year. Also, students and professors alike seem to have some very strong feelings about Barnes and Noble.
I think the store is very attractive...few campuses have a nicer looking bookstore. I have also enjoyed shopping in the store's general merchandise section over the years. Still, even that is a bit lacking when you compare it with the titles and selection that a traditional Barnes and Noble would carry.
I still don't believe that the Barnes and Noble group is going to be
satisfied with having absolutely no presence in a metropolitan area of
around 100,000 people. I see a south-side store coming in the
not-to-distant future...what about you?
So what will Follett bring to the UND campus when it arrives this spring? What do YOU want it to bring?
I'm sure many people would like to see longer hours. The closest Follett-managed campus bookstore is at St. Cloud State University. Check out their hours here. The latest they stay open is 6...no difference there when compared with B&N's current closing time.
Tell us what you would hope to see at the UND Bookstore come this April. WIll you miss B&N? Are you excited about Follett?
I recently came across several images of plans for University Village. All of the plans and renderings are from Icon Architects and they appear to be from a few years back. Click here to view a video of these plans.
Some of the plans seem to have changed from when these proposals were drawn up. For instance, the plans show a new UND Alumni Center just west of Suite 49. Recently, the Alumni Association announced plans for a new center, but the proposed location is now near the President's House on campus.
Still, I think the plans are interesting. For instance, they show a potential location for the University Village hotel: just north of the Ralph Engelstad Arena. In the past, the location I had heard mentioned was just north of Suite 49.
One rendering also shows a proposed student housing complex. This has been mentioned before, but this is the first time I've seen any possible designs.
-All images Icon Architects
Here's a look at what the new Bank Forward branch currently under construction at University Village will look like when completed. The bank should open next month. Back in May, GFL was the first to report about Bank Forward coming to University Village. Can anyone tell me exactly where that Starbucks is going to be located? My guess is on the left (south) side of the building.
It was a couple of months ago that the old, dilapidated Transport Incorporated building out on Gateway Drive was finally torn down. Now, another Gateway Drive eyesore has been demolished. The old Weekley's Auto Wrecking building and house, located just west of the Transport Incorporated site, is no more. One metal shed remains on the property and I would assume that this structure will also be razed.
The Weekley's complex was one of the worst eyesores on the stretch of Gateway that runs through north Grand Forks. Now, if we could just get them to clean up their act at their Gateway Drive property west of the city!
I'm not here to argue whether or not a business like Weekley's is vital or not. What I will argue is that the Weekley's building that was torn down has been basically abandoned for years now. It has been battered by the elements and little if any upkeep has gone into the structure. It has been an eyesore for far to long. It's good to have this building gone and it's good to now have an empty area on Gateway Drive so close to University Village that can now be redeveloped.
Ugly buildings and properties that no one maintains properly are eyesores for the entire community. Some would argue that an eyesore here and there isn't that important, but I would argue that when we see ugliness it brings us down and casts a bad light on the rest of our city. In ways, it is really a quality of life issue. I, for one, am very happy to see blight like this eliminated.
Bank Forward will soon be opening a new bank location in UND's University Village. It was just last night that I first talked about what appeared to be a mysterious construction project underway on the property. I can now state that this site will indeed be home to a Bank Forward location in the near future. Site preparation - which includes rerouting the bike path and removing many trees in the area - is now underway.
This will be the second bank on the University Village property. This will also be Bank Forward's second bank location within the city of Grand Forks. The bank, which is new to this community, has previously announced that they will open a location near the intersection of South Columbia Road and 47th Avenue South.
According to Grand Forks Life reader Jason Berberich, the University Village branch of Bank Forward will also include some sort of Starbucks. Cool...we can never have too many Starbucks!
It appears as though a new construction project of some sort will soon start in the University Village neighborhood north of UND. The bike path that follows the English Coulee is being rerouted in an area just south of Gateway Drive. Also, all trees within this area have been spray painted with big X's so it appears as though they will soon be removed as well. The area I'm referring to is bounded on the north by Gateway Drive, on the east by Ralph Engelstad Drive, on the west by the now-rerouted bike path, and on the south by the existing condo development. Perhaps I’m jumping the gun here, but these things do lead me to believe that something is planned for the property.
So, what can we expect to see constructed on this property in question? Maybe even more condos? What about that University Village hotel project which the University has been working on lately? Perhaps something we haven't even heard about yet? I'll be interested to find out.
Even if the proposed hotel isn't built on the piece of property I referred to earlier, I think we should expect to hear something about the hotel in the near future. I've heard various hotel chains mentioned, including Marriott. A logical location seems to be directly north of Suite 49. I'm sure developers would like to have a physical link to The Ralph, but I'm not sure if that's possible.
Construction on the second University Village strip mall is winding down. One spot in the mall will be a chiropractic office. None of the other spots appear to be taken yet. Any word on future tenants? I have heard that the University has also been working on a plan to build a larger mixed use complex on the northeast corner of University Village. It would be nice to see at least a 3 to 4 story building in that area.
Well, one of the many eyesores on Gateway Drive has finally been destroyed. For the last couple of days, a small crew has been tearing down the old Transport Inc. building. The dilapidated structure, which used to offend from its position a block or two east of old Westward Ho property, is currently a pile of rubbish. This demolition was first mentioned on GFL last year.
Let's hope that the Weekley Auto Wrecking building/house are the next to go! This very visible stretch of Gateway seems to be a prime place for redevelopment of some sort. Let's just hope it won't be another auto parts store. Seriously, I see a gradual redevelopment of the Gateway corridor taking place over the next decade or so. I think some things are already in place for such a renaissance and I think we'll see more good news for the corridor in the future.
Goodbye, Gateway eyesore...you won't be missed. Now, if we could send that wrecking crew to a few other properties in your neck of the woods...
There is a list in Monday's Herald that details all of the new businesses that are coming to town in the near future or have recently opened. There isn't really very much in the list that we don't already know about, but it is interesting to scan through the developments.
Two interesting things:
•The new University Village strip mall has at least two confirmed tenants: a chiropractor and a nail salon
•The new Homestead Grove strip mall on South Washington (the one across from the Aurora Medical Park) has at least one confirmed tenant: a fitness center. As has already been mentioned, the developmet will also be home to a Choice Financial bank branch and the new offices of Crary Development.
UND is proposing $80 million dollars worth of new construction in the near future. The projects are detailed in a report for the 2007-2009 North Dakota legislative biennium. House Bill 1003 contains proposals for funding projects on several college and university campuses across the state. No campus is proposing more construction than UND. Click here for a more detailed breakdown of the projects.
UND projects include:
•Allied Health Facility - $20 million
•American Indian Center - $10 million
•EERC Commercialization Center - $5 million
•Earth Systems Science Building - $5 million
•Indoor track facility - $15 million
•Memorial Union front entrance - $4.5 million
•O'Kelly/Ireland lab - $2.2 million
•SMHS lab and administration renovations - $9.8 million
•SMHS Bismarck FPC graduate center - $4.5 million
•Wilkerson Dining Center renovations - $4 million
In addition to these, President Kupchella is also talking about at least $50 dollars worth of additional projects for the near future including a $29 million steam generation facility and a $20 million graduate-level business building. Also, there should be more private development on the UND campus in the near future. A University Village hotel is sounding more and more like a sure thing.
UND has some pretty impressive plans, to say the least.
Have at it.
Topics covered: Barnes and Noble, Borders Books, the price of textbooks, sprawl, the southward growing of cities, University Village and the possibility of a hotel and a Starbucks coming, Chipotle vs. Qdoba
I've heard rumors lately of a development eyeing a location on Gateway Drive near University Village. The rumors have some sort of "large entertainment center" being constructed near the former site of the Westward Ho complex. What I've been hearing is that the site that is being looked at for this development is the land where the derelict Transport Incorporated and Weekley's Auto buildings currently stand. You may remember that these buildings are slated for demolition in the near future. It seems that the owners of those buildings may want to tear down their properties so they can sell them to the developers of this new complex.
As far as what a "large entertainment center" is, I'll let you be the judge. Maybe some re-incarnation of the Westward Ho? The old Westward Ho motel recently changed hands and the new owners may be in on the plans for the new development. Perhaps the complex might include a brand new hotel? There does seem to be a desire to have a hotel closer to Engelstad Arena, but would anyone really want to build a new hotel just east of the Simplot factory?
I would love to see this area redeveloped. The buildings on this site are ugly and have long outlived their usefulness. A new commercial development of this potential magnitude might be just the ticket for starting the cleanup of Gateway Drive once and for all.
Remember, this is still just a rumor as far as I'm concerned. Still, I've heard plenty of talk of this and I've even heard that there has been some discussion of this amongst city staff. I guess time will tell.
I was excited to see the article in Saturday's business section of the Herald about three new strip malls that will soon be coming to Grand Forks. Interestingly, the three malls are all being developed by the same developer - Dakota Commercial & Development - and will all open this fall.
•University Village strip mall (or "Service Village II", but that's an ugly name if you ask me) will be built across the street and to the north of the exisiting University Village strip mall (the one with Club Tan and Jimmy John's). The new mall will be a $2 million dollar, 20,000 square foot, two-story structure. Except for the second story, it should look pretty similar to the current strip mall at University Village. I'm curious if the second story will house offices or residential space. It would be nice to see some larger scale buildings in University Village with commercial on the ground floor and several floors of residential above. The name "Service Village" makes me think that Dakota Commercial isn't planning on this being much of a retail strip mall...more "service" businesses instead. The mall is supposed to have some sort of a coffee shop (I believe drive-thru) and it seems logical to picture Starbucks coming to University Village...at least that's my hope.
•"On 32nd" is a new one-story strip mall coming on 32nd...32nd Avenue, that is. It will cost $4 million and be 25,000 square feet. It will be in front of the new Kohl's store and directly west of Burger King. A Golden Corral restaurant was previously announced for this area, I wonder if the restaurant will be in the strip mall or what? Perhaps Golden Corral will be farther west...closer to 34th Street and Culver's. This strip mall will be the one built in the busiest location so look for "On 32nd" to have some pretty good stores/restaurants. I would like to see a Panera Bread or maybe another Caribou Coffee.
•"Cottage Growth" (or was the article supposed to read "Cottage Grove"?) will be a two-story strip mall on South Washington across from the new Aurora Medical Park/Stadter Center development. This area seems to be really heating up. A Wells Fargo bank and a new Valley Dairy also appear to be on there way to this neighborhood. The strip mall will be 46,200 square feet and cost $6.2 million. This is a pretty big development and it will be interesting to see what comes to such a new part of town. Maybe another Starbucks? And yes, I love Starbucks. Have a problem with that?
Any opinions on what you would like to see come to any of these new strip malls? I'm thinking we could be getting some good new restaurants or smaller stores with around 90,000 square feet of new strip malls. Exciting to see more commercial growth in Grand Forks.
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