Over the objection of a downtown skyway governance advisory committee, two pedestrian skyway bridges connecting the 134-unit apartment building at 333 Sibley St. — 333 on the Park — will be closed to the general public at all hours.

Until now, the Lowertown apartment building’s skyway has been open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays.

It’s the general policy of the council to frown upon building owners’ requests for private access-only along the public skyway system, but Council Member Rebecca Noecker said she was willing to make an exception for Timberland Partners for two reasons.

There are no skyway retailers or commercial offerings at 333 on the Park, and a nearby skyway to the west, at 180 E. Fifth St., provides a better connection between Cray Plaza and the Twin Cities Public Television building.

“Nowhere else in the system do two parallel corridors exist like this,” said Noecker, prior to the 7-0 vote to allow the exemption to skyway hours of operation as long as those two conditions remain the same.

In a Feb. 19 public hearing before the council, Timberland Partners regional director Bill Thurmes said: “We would not be hindering access to any other building besides ours. … We are here because our residents have asked for this. They want another level of security.”

Thurmes said at the time Timberland uses security cameras and contracts a neighboring building’s security team to monitor the skyways in the building, which recently underwent a conversion from office to residential use.

“We’ve had simple crimes, we’ve had a lot of people breaking into our community room, having access to our coffee machine, not huge quality-of-life crimes,” he said.

Thurmes said skyway traffic on the route is already minimal, and City Walk Condominiums on Ninth Street and Central Towers Senior Living on Exchange Street were both granted exceptions from skyway hours for similar reasons.

BAD PRECEDENT?

That reasoning did not sit well with Bill Hanley, a former TPT executive vice president who lives on the skyway and chairs the skyway governance advisory committee.

On Wednesday, Hanley told the council it would be setting a negative precedent that will inspire other building owners to seek similar skyway exemptions over universal but non-life-threatening concerns, such as littering and homelessness.

“Everyone of them will do that,” said Hanley, noting his skyway committee voted against the change. “The police presence in the skyway system is 1,000 times better than it was four years ago. I think most people feel much more safer in the skyways than they did four years ago.”

As for whether a lack of retail justifies skyway closures, Hanley pointed out that commercial space is shrinking in other downtown buildings such as Cray Plaza, in that case by design.

And already, said Hanley, the new owners of the Great Northern Building at 180 E. Fifth St. have closed its eastern hallway between TPT and Cray Plaza on evenings and weekends without express city approval.

“It’s a non-urgent issue. …You certainly can afford to delay (a vote),” said Hanley, who was unable to sway the council.

Noecker said the Department of Safety and Inspections is aware of the situation at 180 E. Fifth.

“It’s not a legal closure,” she said.

On Feb. 5, the council voted to deny a request by Madison Equities to continue to close access to two of the three skyway connections from the Degree of Honor Building at 325 Cedar St. The bridges had previously been closed during building remodeling and asbestos abatement. The third skyway bridge must reopen by March.