Historic Millwork (aka Warehouse) District.

[BenRoethig]

I'm really suprised I never started a thread for this.


http://www.cityofdubuque.org/index.aspx?NID=116
http://dubuquewarehousedistrict.org/home.html

[BenRoethig]

Phase I concept from Gronen restoration. One interesting note is that it looks like they may plan to remove the truck docks and skywalk and reopen the 1000 block of washington st.

[BenRoethig]

Okay, updates. I contacted the city on a couple warehouse district issues.

First, pending financing work on the first phase is slated to begin in the spring with the first residential units available by the end of the year assuming everything goes according to schedule. I'm not sure which building though.

Second, I did get conformation that they are planning to opening up washington St. The owners gave the go ahead to remove the dock.

One last update, the city will be doing infrastructure changes, but some of the streetscape things, such as the trees and permeable paver streets may have to wait for budget reasons.

[iowa59]

Wow that is going to be a great upgrade to that area! I am so impressed with the lengthy list of what Dubuque has done in such a short time. It makes me excited to see what's next. As a kid I grew up across the river in Wisconsin from Dubuque and I remember how old and grungy this area was. It's just another example of the progressiveness in Dubuque these days.

[DMRyan]

A few years back at a planning conference in Dubuque, this district was presented and we went on a tour of some of the early conversion (mostly commercial spaces) spaces in the district. I was impressed that it was still so in tact and seemed to offer decades of reuse potential if the city can lay the infrastructure groundwork. Much like some of the recent plans shown in the Sioux City section, it's pretty ambitious work that I really think is primarily held back by the market conditions in these smaller cities. I doubt you see multiple residential conversions of these very large warehouse spaces underway simultaniously, but it still gives Dubuque yet another district to work on that's very urban in appearance once things wind down in the Port of Dubuque area. It definitely has potential written all over it and I would love to see this amount of remaining historic building stock left standing in Des Moines--the fact is we just don't have it.

[BenRoethig]

I don't know about that. Dubuque has a severe shortage of apartments which is one of the reasons that the warehouse district has been fast tracked.

[SharpHawkeye]

I don't know about that. Dubuque has a severe shortage of apartments which is one of the reasons that the warehouse district has been fast tracked.

There was just a story about that on the KWWL news the other night. I've tried to find it but there's no record of it on their website, so I'll just have to go off of memory.

I think it said that the percentage of occupied apartments in the city was something like 98 or 99%, which is both awesome and worrisome since it means a major housing crunch is on. They said some newcomers to the city were even having to live in hotels until new apartments can be built. Amazing!

[DMRyan]

I don't know about that. Dubuque has a severe shortage of apartments which is one of the reasons that the warehouse district has been fast tracked.

Hey I hope things do pick up. I'm just basing my statement on seeing what a monumental undertaking it would be realize the full plans in the area. The presentation I attended was three years ago and I'm not sure if much movement has happened since then. This is truly a project for next 25+ years. If I had the means, I wouldn't mind buying a small condo unit in Dubuque to play in during the summertime someday.

[BenRoethig]

I don't know about that. Dubuque has a severe shortage of apartments which is one of the reasons that the warehouse district has been fast tracked.

There was just a story about that on the KWWL news the other night. I've tried to find it but there's no record of it on their website, so I'll just have to go off of memory.

I think it said that the percentage of occupied apartments in the city was something like 98 or 99%, which is both awesome and worrisome since it means a major housing crunch is on. They said some newcomers to the city were even having to live in hotels until new apartments can be built. Amazing!

Or commute from elsewhere. You literally can't get an apartment unless you're section 8 or elderly. That might change a little bit with the warehouse district, the 24 1 and 2 bedroom apartments in the old cathedral school, and there's a couple new complexes build on the west end on University and Radford.

Hey I hope things do pick up. I'm just basing my statement on seeing what a monumental undertaking it would be realize the full plans in the area. The presentation I attended was three years ago and I'm not sure if much movement has happened since then. This is truly a project for next 25+ years. If I had the means, I wouldn't mind buying a small condo unit in Dubuque to play in during the summertime someday.

The big difference between now and 3 years ago is IBM.

[iowa59]

when are the first apartments in the warehouse district supposed to be available? Sounds like it could be a serious problem if they don't have some soon.

[BenRoethig]

Fall or winter.

[BenRoethig]

Street improvements might not have to wait. The City has been awarded $5.6 million for the warehouse district streets.

http://www.cityofdubuque.org/archives/9 ... cement.pdf

[Des Moineser]

$5.6

That's not going very far...

This looks like a great project for this city, I'll be ready to see some pictures when they break ground on all these apartments.

[BenRoethig]

Well, they won't be breaking ground so to speak for quite a while since there really isn't any new construction planned until phase III. It'll be nice to see these massive 3-7 story warehouses go from rundown eyesore to a hub of activity.

[iowa59]

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=273589

[DMRyan]

Good job on Dubuque landing this, it was only one of two Iowa cities to land the TIGER Grants out of quite a few requests. Ames also landed an $8+ million grant for a multi-modal transit hub.

[BenRoethig]

The city has issued an RFP for a study to convert 9th, 11th Kerper to central, and 10th Central to bluff from one way to two way streets per the millwork district master plan.

My view: if they actually do this its going to be a disaster. The people who did the warehouse district study came in with the bias that all one way streets are bad and they could magically reduce traffic flow to downtown.

[BenRoethig]

The intermodal transit center is now slated for the millwork district instead of the port, east of elm between 9th and 11th (where the park is on the diagram).

[DMRyan]

Why the location switch?

[BenRoethig]

Honestly, the millwork district needs a ramp, the location fits, the port already has a ramp, and there's not money for two projects. Council wasn't pleased that they city didn't give them a heads up on the location change though.

[BenRoethig]

Official pros and cons of the two selected proposed intermodal sites. Site 1 is More or less the northern part of the (city owned) Mc-Graw hill lot up against the tracks.

Port Site (Site 1)
A. Pros
1. Less travel time from Chicago to DBQ to Waterloo using this site since don't need to switch rail lines
2. Port is more of an attraction today
3. Property is already owned by City
4. Involves only one rail carrier (CN)
5. Surrounding area is successfully developed so passengers may be more
comfortable disembarking from train
6. Closer to river for boats
7. Could free up City (McGraw-Hili) parking lot for future development
B. Cons
1. Paid parking may be low
2. Since there are known hazardous materials the cost of mitigation will increase the construction cost
3. FTA expressed a concern about pedestrians crossing at grade tracks to access site (and no rail gates are present to block sidewalk)
4. As a transit transfer point this site is inconvenient
5. Due to only one grade separation into Port area, it is difficult to have a predictable transit bus schedule
6. Less potential use by bicycles at this site
7. Shot Tower will not be visible from downtown or Port
C. Unknowns
1. SHPO response to FTA recommendation of No Adverse Impact
2. Written comments from the CN Railroad
3. Train signal protective requirements (related to total cost estimate)
4. Number of parking spaces which can be justified by demand, FTA recommends 500 as an upper limit

Historic Millwork Site (Site
A. Pros
1. Fills a need for parking in the Historic Millwork District
2. More reliable schedule for bus
3. More demand for bicycles, pedestrians. From downtown would not need to cross active railroad tracks
4. Walking distance from area where people do not have cars and who use intercity
carriers
5. Better location as a transit transfer facility
6. Site easy to access from US 61/151
7. Potential to provide a buffer between Historic Millwork District development and highway
8. Frees up opportunity for green space / plaza in the Millwork District
9. Millwork property owners endorse this site
10. Greater potential for parking revenue to offset costs making this site more self sufficient
11. Intermodal Facility is consistent with the Historic Millwork District with respect to sustainability, complete streets, air quality, and safety
B. Cons
1. Not all property needed is owned by City
2. Historic Millwork District is not developed, so more of a risk as to how successful it will be
3. Need to coordinate with two rail carriers to access site
4. Need to coordinate with the Iowa DOT since proposed use of their property
5. Requires Hwy ramp relocation and potentially Elm Street relocation
C. Unknowns
1. SHPO response to FTA recommendation of No Adverse Impact
2. Iowa DOT response to allowing the removal of the DOT frontage road (northbound) between 9th Street and Elm Street
3. Iowa DOT response concerning the use of the property currently owned by the DOT just west of US 61/151 and between 9th Street, 11th Street, & Elm Street
4. Iowa DOT concurrence of converting the existing one-way couplet of 9th Street and 11th Street to two-way streets
5. DNR response with respect to Phase II Hazardous Material Assessment
6. Number of parking spaces which can be justified by demand, FTA recommends 500 as an upper limit, however there is most likely more demand at Site 8

[BenRoethig]

All bid materials including site selection study.
http://www.cityofdubuque.org/bids.aspx?bidID=152

[BenRoethig]

Early street reconstruction photos including the soon to open once again to traffic 1000 block of Wash.

[BenRoethig]

Not quite Millwork district, but this is the green alley on the 1100 block between White and Jackson. Permeable pavers like this (but hopefully brick red to match the old cobblestone) will make up the streets in the Millwork district.

[DMRyan]

The Millwork District might be the finest warehouse district or warehouse canyons in Iowa. I think Dubuque may have the first green alley in the state as well. Hopefully the green alley will work better than the porous parking lot experiments have in this climate.

[BenRoethig]

We have a couple of them actually. Makes the Alley look better while basically con ducting an experiment on the cheap. The next block up is using porous asphalt.

[BenRoethig]

Reconstruction on Jackson, 9th and 10th. I had hoped for an all paver street, but the 1000 block didn't turn out that bad with the pavers in the parking areas, concrete in the driving lanes and original brick in the center.

[Ingersoll1978]

Wow. I really like the mixture of brick and concrete. Looks great.

[BenRoethig]

Yeah, It doesn't look half bad. I wish they would have gone with red concrete though to keep more of the original look. Can't wait to get a chance to drive on it. The cobblestone was a bit rough to say the least.

[WaterlooDave]

Personally, I loved the old brick streets in that area. However, it is good to see that the rail was put into that center brick section of the new street. Having the rail in the street gives a great historical perspective.