Wal-Mart proposing second Grand Forks location

[LeftyZL]

This is weird Duluth only has one wal-mart and Duluth is alot bigger than Grand Forks. Wal-mart must think there is traffic but I do not see it.

Correction. Duluth has zero Wal-Marts. One supercenter is in Hermantown and the other in Superior, WI.

[jdub27]

This is why I voted for Tyrone Grandstrand in the mayoral race in June. He seemed to grasp the concern that while Grand Forks is doing well, there are things that could be improved. Nothing against Michael Brown, but I hope his eventual successor is a younger, more energetic mayor that takes tnt's approach toward economic and infrastructure development.

Not sure that is entirely correct. Not sure on interstate interchanges, but wasn't Grandstrand against expanding Columbia Rd despite the city engineers analysis?

[fightingsioux4life]

Not sure that is entirely correct. Not sure on interstate interchanges, but wasn't Grandstrand against expanding Columbia Rd despite the city engineers analysis?

Yeah, I didn't agree with him on that. But I liked a lot of the things he said in the campaign about growing and moving Grand Forks forward. That, and the snotty editorial Mike Jacobs wrote in the Heraldo bashing Grandstrand and endorsing Brown.

[Siouxperfan7]

Yeah, I didn't agree with him on that. But I liked a lot of the things he said in the campaign about growing and moving Grand Forks forward. That, and the snotty editorial Mike Jacobs wrote in the Heraldo bashing Grandstrand and endorsing Brown.

Alright, the election is over...Grandstrand lost...by a very large margain at that. He is obviously not ready to be mayor. But that doesn't mean that he can't be successful and bring great ideas to the city council. We need young guys with great ideas to grow the city on the council. The old farts on the council that have been there for years nood to start doing something to grow this city or they will be replaced with younger people with ideas.

[mg2009]

It looks like Wal-Mart is planning to build another Supercenter on the north end of Grand Forks at the corner of Gateway Drive and N 58th Street:

http://www.wdaz.com/...ticle/id/14700/

This is a great location to draw in Canadian shoppers and should give the north end a much-needed econcomic boost. I am surprised that Wal-Mart would invest in a "dying" community like Grand Forks (if you believe those bogus census estimates, that is).

if you've ever been to a city that is actually growing, grand forks' stagnancy is pretty obvious.

edit: hooray for low-pay dead-end retail jobs at trashy companys!

[fightingsioux4life]

if you've ever been to a city that is actually growing, grand forks' stagnancy is pretty obvious.

edit: hooray for low-pay dead-end retail jobs at trashy companys!

Somebody is moving into those apartment buildings and townhomes. Otherwise, they wouldn't be building them. Me and my wife just purchased a townhome on the south side and we were fortunate to snatch it up before someone else did. Houses are being sold almost as soon as they get listed.

Bottom line: Grand Forks has recovered from the 1997 flood and is moving forward. Not as fast as The Center of the Known Universe (Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo-Dilworth and whichever other towns they want to add to it), but it is moving forward.

[mg2009]

Somebody is moving into those apartment buildings and townhomes. Otherwise, they wouldn't be building them. Me and my wife just purchased a townhome on the south side and we were fortunate to snatch it up before someone else did. Houses are being sold almost as soon as they get listed.

Bottom line: Grand Forks has recovered from the 1997 flood and is moving forward. Not as fast as The Center of the Known Universe (Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo-Dilworth and whichever other towns they want to add to it), but it is moving forward.

at the rate of about 300 people a year, which fits the volume of new construction, which btw isn't very high. In 20 years, grand forks will be roughly the same city it is now, which is roughly the same city it was 20 years ago. F-M, bismarck, sioux falls, rapid city, st. cloud, rochester, sioux city, etc are all growing leaps and bounds faster than grand forks, at least to the extent that grand forks can be considered to be growing.

[Teeder11]

at the rate of about 300 people a year, which fits the volume of new construction, which btw isn't very high. In 20 years, grand forks will be roughly the same city it is now, which is roughly the same city it was 20 years ago. F-M, bismarck, sioux falls, rapid city, st. cloud, rochester, sioux city, etc are all growing leaps and bounds faster than grand forks, at least to the extent that grand forks can be considered to be growing.

I liked Grand Forks 20 years ago and I like Grand Forks now and I imagine that I will still love it in 20 years. It's the perfect size for me. Not too big and not too small. It's got everything I could need and want. This whole idea that we have to keep growing to keep up with Fargo, Bismarck, Sioux Falls, etc. is misguided. A slow growth rate is a lot better than the growing pains that come with boom cycles and it's a lot better than the alternative of regression. I think some people have a hard time grasping that there are lots of us who love it here, and that we don't have any envy for others in the region who right now are "booming."

[Homeguy]

What Grand Forks needs is a monorail!

[Sodbuster]

at the rate of about 300 people a year, which fits the volume of new construction, which btw isn't very high. In 20 years, grand forks will be roughly the same city it is now, which is roughly the same city it was 20 years ago. F-M, bismarck, sioux falls, rapid city, st. cloud, rochester, sioux city, etc are all growing leaps and bounds faster than grand forks, at least to the extent that grand forks can be considered to be growing.

Hooray for Bismarck, Sioux Falls, Rapid City, St. Cloud, Rochester, and Sioux City. (Notice the omission).

[watchmaker49]

When the outlets went in at Albertville (MN) you had to take a rinky-dink off-ramp and drive quite a distance on a frontage road. The improved ramps came later. The same model could work in GF: build it, prove it, add the ramps later. Hey, if there's good shopping people will get there (see: Albertville).

I see Walmart building on Gateway as a nice starting point to begin the process to improve the Gateway corridor from Columbia to the airport.

The ramps have not been changed in Albertville. They are the same as they were back in 1979 when I started driving by them many times a year.

[watchmaker49]

Somebody is moving into those apartment buildings and townhomes. Otherwise, they wouldn't be building them. Me and my wife just purchased a townhome on the south side and we were fortunate to snatch it up before someone else did. Houses are being sold almost as soon as they get listed.

Bottom line: Grand Forks has recovered from the 1997 flood and is moving forward. Not as fast as The Center of the Known Universe (Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo-Dilworth and whichever other towns they want to add to it), but it is moving forward.

You mean that suburb to the south that is looking for a city to attach itself to?

[fightingsioux4life]

I liked Grand Forks 20 years ago and I like Grand Forks now and I imagine that I will still love it in 20 years. It's the perfect size for me. Not too big and not too small. It's got everything I could need and want. This whole idea that we have to keep growing to keep up with Fargo, Bismarck, Sioux Falls, etc. is misguided. A slow growth rate is a lot better than the growing pains that come with boom cycles and it's a lot better than the alternative of regression. I think some people have a hard time grasping that there are lots of us who love it here, and that we don't have any envy for others in the region who right now are "booming."

I would never want the growth rates of the oil patch (it's impossible to find and afford housing, the roads are jammed with big, heavy trucks that destroy the roads) or of Fargo-Moorhead, Sioux Falls, Omaha, ect. What I get sick and tired of are the obviously flawed census estimates showing that Grand Forks is somehow losing people left and right, while all these new homes and apartments are being built. This gives the world the impression that nobody wants to live here anymore. That can impact what businesses choose to locate here, what type of transportation funding we can get, ect. My only point was (and still is) is that businesses and developers are not going to spend millions of dollars to build in an area that is declining in population and/or quality of life. They obviously have done their marketing research and that research tells them there is a market here that hasn't been served.

Most people in Grand Forks (or anywhere else in North Dakota) don't want to live in the urban sprawl that Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo-Dilworth-Horace-Harwood-Casselton has become. The problem is the arrogant attitude of some Fargoans, which rubs the rest of the state the wrong way; this rubbing our noses in the population gains of the Cass-Clay County MSA. The headline in the Fargo Forum in 2010 after the Census numbers came in was "Boom goes the Metro". It might as well have said "Boom goes the Ego". Fargo tries so hard to be “just like Minneapolis” (I think I should just call it Minneapolis, Jr. from now on) when they should just count their blessings and do their best to manage their growth so that it doesn’t poison the quality of life that North Dakotans value so much. This also will make it harder to get downstream residents to support the F-M Diversion Project, which I support and which is needed.

[The Sicatoka]

The ramps have not been changed in Albertville. They are the same as they were back in 1979 when I started driving by them many times a year.

Then something there changed for the better. (Probably surface traffic control.)

[tnt]

Then something there changed for the better. (Probably surface traffic control.)

It looked to me like they were putting in a ramp to access it more directly if you are coming from Minneapolis. I always thought it was odd that you had to drive through town a bit to get to the outlets instead of a direct exit.

[watchmaker49]

It looked to me like they were putting in a ramp to access it more directly if you are coming from Minneapolis. I always thought it was odd that you had to drive through town a bit to get to the outlets instead of a direct exit.

That's because there were already 2 exits there before the outlet was built. Outlet malls really are not a bargain to start with. When mall stores or what have you like a department anchor store their sales are better than what you can get at an outlet. The two best stores in outlet malls are Nike stores, for selecton and price, and Neiman Marcus Last Call stores.

[Fetch]

I like it where it is proposed - Look forward to a Grocery Store out this way

Wish Hugo's would put a store out here like EGF one

[tnt]

On 7/18/2012 at 0:11 PM, tnt said:

Yeah, the Canadian traffic is probably the impetus for the recent talk by a developer of an outlet mall by 47th ave. south. The problem with that is that they are looking for an interstate interchange there, and we know how likely that is to happen in a timely manner. As usual, Grand Forks will twiddle their thumbs and Fargo will beat them to it and garner more Canadian traffic down there. If Grand Forks would be proactive, they could keep even more Canadians from driving another hour south. Hopefully they move on that as well as the Walmart.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/4165507-fargo-developer-explores-massive-outlet-mall

Is this a missed opportunity for Grand Forks? How many more Canadians will bypass Grand Forks to go to Fargo?

[Cratter]

8 minutes ago, tnt said:

http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/4165507-fargo-developer-explores-massive-outlet-mall

Is this a missed opportunity for Grand Forks? How many more Canadians will bypass Grand Forks to go to Fargo?

I would say no. Fargo has a much greater population to draw from and already draws a lot more "tourism" than GF. 

GF developers already discussed having one and I guess they didn't see it as viable.