North Grand Mall

A roundabout at 13th and Grand? That's a recipe for disaster.

A roundabout at State and Mortenson? Brilliant.

Extending Bloomington to I35 would also be awesome.

Anyone know how long Coldwater has been where it's at? Because it looks like Eminent Domain will be shutting it down in the next 20 years.

A northern exit on 35 would help a ton, this seems like it would be just as important as extending Grand. That would be a true game changer for people and businesses in North Ames. Plus if they extend Bloomington to North Dakota and make everything 4 lanes like they have drawn that would make it very easy to get around Ames to other areas. You would basically have 4 lanes circling town and Grand and Duff being 4 lane splitting it. Plus also saw that there is a Duff ave railroad underpass on there which should have happened years ago. Question is if they build that how will you get to main street? That could really change that area.

Also, they can't be serious with some of the locations of turnabouts can they.
 
A roundabout at 13th and Grand? That's a recipe for disaster.

A roundabout at State and Mortenson? Brilliant.

Extending Bloomington to I35 would also be awesome.

Anyone know how long Coldwater has been where it's at? Because it looks like Eminent Domain will be shutting it down in the next 20 years.

Yea that just doesn't seem like such a good idea with the heavy traffic there at certain hours of the day.
 
Roundabouts!

Ahh...roundabouts...the latest fad in urban planning. I had to take a detour around an accident awhile back an ended up take a small country road that I rarely drive on. So what do I find? Two new roundabouts on this road, pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. How quaint.

It's interesting that when the Interstate system was orignally built, in many places it was built to avoid cities in order to move traffic smoothly. Now, we've decided that interstates should be corridors of business and commerce.

One word of caution, if you are going to build up along an interstate, make darn sure you widen (or leave room to widen) the interstate. If not, you've just guaranteed yourself a future rush hour parking lot. Got lots of 'em around here...
 
Haven't read the whole thread... but anyone complaining about North Grand needs to take a stop at the mall in Spamtown, MN. Not a single 'normal' mall shop in the place and I kid you not. 2/3rds EMPTY. Wouldn't even go into the place if the movie theatre wasn't hooked onto it.

North Grand could be worse...
 
A roundabout at 13th and Grand? That's a recipe for disaster.

A roundabout at State and Mortenson? Brilliant.

Extending Bloomington to I35 would also be awesome.

Anyone know how long Coldwater has been where it's at? Because it looks like Eminent Domain will be shutting it down in the next 20 years.

Coldwater opened in 2002. I don't think they'll have to shut it down once Grand is extended. Pretty sure the road will go between 8/11 and then bend to go between 9/10. Might have to put up nets though for hooks off of #8 and #10.

golf_course.gif
 
A roundabout at 13th and Grand? That's a recipe for disaster.A roundabout at State and Mortenson? Brilliant.Extending Bloomington to I35 would also be awesome.Anyone know how long Coldwater has been where it's at? Because it looks like Eminent Domain will be shutting it down in the next 20 years.

the city already has the land it needs for grand. When Coldwater went in there, they were made aware of the future plans, so they know and have planned for out
 
Coldwater opened in 2002. I don't think they'll have to shut it down once Grand is extended. Pretty sure the road will go between 8/11 and then bend to go between 9/10. Might have to put up nets though for hooks off of #8 and #10.

golf_course.gif

Yep, that is correct
 
Haven't read the whole thread... but anyone complaining about North Grand needs to take a stop at the mall in Spamtown, MN. Not a single 'normal' mall shop in the place and I kid you not. 2/3rds EMPTY. Wouldn't even go into the place if the movie theatre wasn't hooked onto it.

North Grand could be worse...

This is true. My wife grew up just east of Austin and I have been to the mall there twice. It is a collection of random WTF stores inside a mall. If the theater and Shopko wasn't there that thing would be a ghost town.
 
Haven't read the whole thread... but anyone complaining about North Grand needs to take a stop at the mall in Spamtown, MN. Not a single 'normal' mall shop in the place and I kid you not. 2/3rds EMPTY. Wouldn't even go into the place if the movie theatre wasn't hooked onto it.

North Grand could be worse...

Do you call it the "dirt mall"?
 
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A roundabout at 13th and Grand? That's a recipe for disaster.

A roundabout at State and Mortenson? Brilliant.

Extending Bloomington to I35 would also be awesome.

Anyone know how long Coldwater has been where it's at? Because it looks like Eminent Domain will be shutting it down in the next 20 years.

Thinking about sitting at 13th and Grand makes me want to shoot myself. Ames is layed out very poorly in terms of roads to get across town.
 
Unless the City of Ames can buy the lots at the corner of 13th and Grand that intersection will forever be a cluster****. It needs an intersection like the one at Lincoln Way and Grand (without the double turn lanes to go northbound).
 
I am all about local business, but having a decent mall with the population we have should have been a must. A lot of business and I mean a lot goes to Des Moines therefore they are not even shopping downtown as well because of the ****** mall here.

Downtown is strong, but could be stronger with a better mall and I mean price comparison and experience to have both. Also the location is not good in my opinion.
 
What are you talking about?

Great question...

I am talking about a decision made by the Ames city council that allowed the mall at 13th to move forward and a following election that saw 3 members of the "no mall/no growth" group get elected and the city council then going back on the previous city council's agreement.

I lived in Ames at the time - it was at least 5 or so years ago.
 

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