TOD News

Courtney Subramanian | NationalSwell 

With all the reports of a lack of funding of infrastructure and transit projects nationwide, the Twin Cities have some good news to share.

Last Saturday, they celebrated the opening of a third light-rail line: the Green Line.

The nearly $1 billion transportation project is touted as more than just an engineering project to connect the vein that pulses from St. Paul to Minneapolis — it’s the city’s biggest foray into economic revitalization yet.

The Green Line initiative is the result of more than three decades of planning — returning the vacant lots and blighted 11-mile stretch between the two cities back into the bustling corridor it once was during the early part of last century. Known as the Central Corridor, the Green Line’s route will provide public transit from the state Capitol through the area of immigrant-owned, small businesses and to the University of Minnesota’s campus. Read more

Don Martin | CultureMap

And then there was one. Competition for the redevelopment of East Austin’s Saltillo Plaza came to a somewhat stormy conclusion on Monday night with the Capital Metro Board voting to select the proposal by Endeavor Real Estate and Columbus Realty to redevelop the 10-acre space.

In May, Capital Metro narrowed the choices down to Endeavor’s proposal and a plan by Saltillo Collaborative, an affiliation of various companies led by Austin developers Perry Lorenz and Larry Warshaw, the Trammel Crow Company and the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation. Endeavor is the developer of The Domain, and Columbus is a major developer of residential units within The Domain.  Read more

Bianca Barragan | LA Curbed

All the crane-and-construction action in Downtown has been seeping up into Chinatown for a while now—the Jia Apartments opened recently, the Blossom Plaza complex has finally gotten underway, and the old Velvet Turtle lot has been cleared out for an undetermined future mixed-use project.

Why, the only thing it’s missing now are some residential high-rises. Enter a new proposal by EVOQ Properties (as seen on Building LA), which has two visions—both huge—for a project called College Station on a Gold-Line-adjacent lot at the northeast corner of Spring and College. One plan has two 20-story towersrising on the 5.24-acre lot, along with retail, live/work units, market-rate apartments, a market, parking, and affordable housing for seniors. And even the less ambitious plan would create 533 new transit-oriented units, more than double the apartments in Blossom Plaza, underway just across the street. Both are designed by VTBS Architects. Read more