Curious about the Whitney?
The former Whitney Hotel, located on the Mississippi Riverfront near the Guthrie Theatre, has been under construction for what seems like years now. Today's Star Tribune has an update on plans to renovate the historic property to 25 condo units. The project has suffered construction delays, allegations of mistreating workers and is now plagued by slow sales of units. The 1879 building opened as the Standard Mill.
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1 comment:
It's surprising that The Whitney condos are not selling considering
their location a few hundred yards
from the river and Stone Arch Bridge and across the street from
some very successful and expensive
residences in the North Star Blanket Mills, Humboldt Lofts and
the Mill City Museum and Guthrie...
If such a local can't lure potential residents than the condo
market may truly be oversaturated...good news for the fragile mill ruins at the former Fuji Ya location that was to become
"The Wave" by the now troubled Omni
Development that has a bankrupt project in Elliot Park (The Sexton)
adjacent to an empty lot that was
to be Sexton II...
It took some time for the Whitney developers to get approval to replace the small historic mill windows facing the river...so they
added enormous windows with double
doors and small awkward balconies that deface the appearance of the
building and certainly provide no
privacy or respite from noise from the now busy street beneath...
And just across the river the massive grey bulging structure of
the Pillsbury A mill, which Schaefer Richardson hopes to turn
into condos...except they have to
replace all the wooden floors and
remove all the massive machinery
of flour making some of which extends between floors...and they
had the hope to somehow refurbish
the multipaned enormous historic
windows...plus they'd planned to
demo the entire bank of large
white grain elevators...true they
are empty but if such structures
should remain anywhere it's there.
When I took the tour of this incredible marvel of 19th industry
this summer, it seemed to me the A mill had challenges that could defeat many a developer...and even
though...it could remain empty...if
it can't become a second Mill City
Museum...perhaps the intended condo development will fail and anyone who has been inside might
agree that the building is too
powerful a place to ruin.
-md
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