Secrets of the City

Well they better get their ass in gear, less than two years until the GOP people come to town.

And cue trademark litigation in 3…2…1….

Paging Rex to thread…. Rex, please….

I was hoping for lofts. Minneapolis doesn’t have enough lofts. Or condos. Or flats. Or apartments.

mike s: I don’t get it. The condo looks nicely furnished by IKEA, though.

champs, the hotel will be a W Hotel. These are usually named after where they’re located, e.g., “W San Diego,” “W New York,” and ostensively “W Minneapolis.” The cats I linked to are already doing business as “W Minneapolis.” We’d be talking about hotels vs. condos, except that Starwood often has condos in its hotel developments. (It doesn’t look like there will be any in the Foshay, however.) So my guess is that there will be some patent litigators getting paid as a result of all this….

The Foshay, while historically signifigant, is woefully outdated and underutilizes a key city block. The tower footprint is about 1/10 the square footageof the 2 story foundation, and they’ll only get 6 or 8 hotel rooms per floor, with most of them having a lovely pillar right in the middle.

I misspoke, they’re doing business as the W. Same deal, I just sense a showdown.

The pillar in the middle would only be appropriate for such an incredibly phallic building.

The Foshay, while historically signifigant, is woefully outdated and underutilizes a key city block. The tower footprint is about 1/10 the square footageof the 2 story foundation, and they’ll only get 6 or 8 hotel rooms per floor, with most of them having a lovely pillar right in the middle.

So would you have them replace it/remove it because it’s not the 100% most efficient use of the valuable real estate? I, for one, am happy that someone has found a way to give this historically significant building an economically viable purpose.

PS: I also heard that it was going to be a “residence/hotel” thing, where people can buy suites/apartments as residences and still take advantage of all of the hotel services. Not sure if that’s still part of the plan; the Strib article didn’t specify and I’m too lazy to look for other sources.

PPS: And no, I’ll bet the upper level where the observation decks are will be turned into some kind of trendy lounge or something. Or maybe a rockin’ penthouse.

If access to the observation deck is truly a public priority, I’d suggest the City Council get busy now and make a bid for that floor.

Or, I suppose they could just wait, and then claim later that it’s “the public’s right” to use private property, on the strong Constitutional theory that, “well, we just want to.”

(Or, as this has now been renamed, the Kelo option.)

Actually, if I were Basant Kharabanda, I would have moved the Foshay to my back yard in North Oaks and turned it into a guest house.

The obeservation “deck” is a concrete corridor about 3 feet wide, so it is essentially useless for anything other than looking up at the taller neighbors.

How in the world did even this topic get turned into a political thread?

You all are terrible. And by you all, you know who I mean.

This Burnet guy is just burning money left anf right. He spent 30MM remodeling and creating the chambers and now 15MM for this W. I wonder who this “4 other local investors” are. It is cool though that he is investing all this money in Mpls.

So speaking if condos and hotel rooms. I heard the Nicollet is a totally dead deal.

I do think the Africanized Carvings of Ronald McDonald and some other creature (Big Mac? Mayor McCheese?) in the Chambers window are very cool and creepy. I do want to get in there and check out some of the other art. How often do you get to see a Damian Hirst without paying some obscene donation to the Met?

Art-schmart.

It’s a $15 cocktail that I want!

You can already get a $15 cocktail at the Infinity Room at Graves.

Boffo!

Now if I can just find a date…

The odds makers in Vegas are having a hard time setting realistic odds on bud jr ever getting a date.

I thought bud jr. had a thing for Carrie. Maybe it was Ron Carey.

Harry Carey.

You can already get a $15 cocktail at the Infinity Room at Graves.

Actually, @ last check they were just $14. I would one for Bud, but my experience is that Republican girls take at least 3 before they put out.

Harry Carey.

I heard the W hotel should be opening up in July 2008. With 229 rooms and an open observation deck. By the way… you can see more then just those other skyscrapers…

The W Hotel and Foshay Tower Museum/Observation Deck are now open. The observation deck is open to the public and it’s hours are noon-9, 7 days a week. Hope this helps!