Pioneer Press: Condos 1st step in downtown revival

The Pioneer Press has a lengthy article on what's apparently the largest demolition project ever undertaken in downtown Stillwater:

A row of old buildings that once housed small businesses on Stillwater's North Main Street is being demolished this week to make way for the city's latest downtown condominium project: Stillwater Mills on Main.

The $46 million condominium and commercial building will encompass the entire block between Main Street and Second Street and will extend from the corner of Mulberry Street to the Isaac Staple Mill building complex.

Read the full story at twincities.com.

(And, dang it, it looks like I missed my chance to photograph this.)

Skyway News: North Loop's 720 lofts to break ground

Crews will break ground in October on 720 Lofts -- a seven-story condo project in the North Loop at North 4th Street & 7th Avenue.

The 99-unit development by Northeast-based Schafer Richardson will go up next to the developer's 710 Lofts, a four-story industrial-style loft building expected to open in April 2005.

Read the full story at skywaynews.net.

Pioneer Press: River relic comes to life

Recent government action is giving a big boost to developers' plans to offer diners a nice meal with a great riverfront view from inside a recycled building where farmers and grain merchants made St. Paul history.

The federal government's decision to add the remnants of the 75-year-old St. Paul Municipal Grain Terminal to the National Register of Historic Places is bolstering efforts to save and reuse the two remaining buildings.

Full story at twincities.com.

Pioneer Press: Another chapter added to story of birthplace

Larry Millett tells the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald's birthplace in St. Paul:

It was, instead, an unremarkable apartment in one of two identical buildings built side by side in an upscale but not quite posh neighborhood a few blocks away from the gold coast of Summit Avenue.

Yet like all historic buildings, the apartment has its own story to tell. It's a tale of modest beginnings, years of decline and decay, near demolition and finally, in the 1970s, rejuvenation.

See the full story at twincities.com.

StarTribune: Chambers Hotel gets upgrade to a double

The StarTribune is reporting today that boutique hotel plans for the Fairmont Hotel (on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis) have been expanded to include the neighboring parking lot and ProColor Building. "The expansion of the hotel to 53 rooms, about 25 of them suites, from the original plan for just 24 suites... [will] delay the opening date for what will be called the Minneapolis Chambers Hotel about a year, to early 2006."

It'll be interesting to see what this means for the ProColor Building. It looks like a solid building, but regrettably has one of the more abused facades in downtown Minneapolis. The official Chambers Minneapolis site doesn't have any information about the new plans yet, but the inclusion of the ProColor Building may mean the death of one of the ugliest surface parking lots in the Twin Cities.

For more background information, Google has a cache of the April StarTribune article announcing plans for the hotel.