Downtown Minneapolis General Discussion

[nate]

I have hazy memories of downtown Mpls from the year 2006 when I moved to the Twin Cities, but my best recall is this:
- Downtown core - absolutely hopping on nice summer weekdays, pretty quiet on weekends, weird vibe during the winter with everyone in the skyways. I think Marshall Fields was active - it hadn't become Macy's yet and there was a few other national shopping brands in the core, but very little I'd call unique.
- Between downtown core and the Metrodome - a sea of surface parking lots absolutely full of cars every day. Seriously, go look at the 2006 aerial photo on the Hennepin Co property map, it's unreal how many cars are surface parked in this area.
- Mill District - sea of surface parking lots. Guthrie either under construction or just operational, can't quite remember.
- North Loop - lots of surface parking lots. I think most of the historic warehouses were occupied, but many weren't, and there were just a few green shoots of new development like the Bookmen Lofts.
- Washington Ave - essentially dead except for a Spaghetti Factory on the east side and JD Hoyt's/Cuzzy's on the North Loop side. Hennepin and Washington was a Jaguar dealership, I think defunct or near-defunct. SexWorld took up the whole block between 1st N and 2nd N.

If you contrast this with today, the core has taken a dive but the rest of the downtown area has improved to a remarkable extent imo. The Mill District and North Loop are self-sustaining neighborhoods in their own right, the area around US Bank Stadium has filled in with solid if somewhat unremarkable development. Washington Ave feels like a real big-city street, mostly unencumbered by skyways, for a solid 25 blocks (there's some clunkers along the way but almost every block has active uses and 6+ stories of street wall). There's grocery stores and smaller retailers catering to these neighborhoods scattered in all kinds of places where 20 years ago there was nothing.

I guess the thing that gives me tired head about this report, and the reporting around it, gives this perception of crisis that is surely real to the property owners who bought at the peak of an office market that isn't coming back....but diminishes all the really good things that have happened in the last two decades in the area around the core. So the report is full of platitudes like better skyway signage, pop-up shops, and "places for everyone" but I think what's really needed is loan write-offs and haircuts for institutional investors, in order to create space for the momentum in the areas around the core to make their way into it.

[BikesOnFilm]

I guess the thing that gives me tired head about this report, and the reporting around it, gives this perception of crisis that is surely real to the property owners who bought at the peak of an office market that isn't coming back....but diminishes all the really good things that have happened in the last two decades in the area around the core. So the report is full of platitudes like better skyway signage, pop-up shops, and "places for everyone" but I think what's really needed is loan write-offs and haircuts for institutional investors, in order to create space for the momentum in the areas around the core to make their way into it.

The Downtown Council, mostly made up of businesses and property owners with wealth tied up in those 2019 evaluations, was never going to be the messenger for a "put all the buildings in receivership and reset the chessboard" approach to fixing downtown. But no matter the case, at least they've put together a nice roadmap for the people who will buy downtown at a 50-90% discount to follow.

[will387]

I have hazy memories of downtown Mpls from the year 2006 when I moved to the Twin Cities, but my best recall is this:
- Downtown core - absolutely hopping on nice summer weekdays, pretty quiet on weekends, weird vibe during the winter with everyone in the skyways. I think Marshall Fields was active - it hadn't become Macy's yet and there was a few other national shopping brands in the core, but very little I'd call unique.
- Between downtown core and the Metrodome - a sea of surface parking lots absolutely full of cars every day. Seriously, go look at the 2006 aerial photo on the Hennepin Co property map, it's unreal how many cars are surface parked in this area.
- Mill District - sea of surface parking lots. Guthrie either under construction or just operational, can't quite remember.
- North Loop - lots of surface parking lots. I think most of the historic warehouses were occupied, but many weren't, and there were just a few green shoots of new development like the Bookmen Lofts.
- Washington Ave - essentially dead except for a Spaghetti Factory on the east side and JD Hoyt's/Cuzzy's on the North Loop side. Hennepin and Washington was a Jaguar dealership, I think defunct or near-defunct. SexWorld took up the whole block between 1st N and 2nd N.

If you contrast this with today, the core has taken a dive but the rest of the downtown area has improved to a remarkable extent imo. The Mill District and North Loop are self-sustaining neighborhoods in their own right, the area around US Bank Stadium has filled in with solid if somewhat unremarkable development. Washington Ave feels like a real big-city street, mostly unencumbered by skyways, for a solid 25 blocks (there's some clunkers along the way but almost every block has active uses and 6+ stories of street wall). There's grocery stores and smaller retailers catering to these neighborhoods scattered in all kinds of places where 20 years ago there was nothing.

I guess the thing that gives me tired head about this report, and the reporting around it, gives this perception of crisis that is surely real to the property owners who bought at the peak of an office market that isn't coming back....but diminishes all the really good things that have happened in the last two decades in the area around the core. So the report is full of platitudes like better skyway signage, pop-up shops, and "places for everyone" but I think what's really needed is loan write-offs and haircuts for institutional investors, in order to create space for the momentum in the areas around the core to make their way into it.

Totally agree with you! It's huge transformation in places like the North Loop and Mill District. In 20 years so much has changed. That’s important word of the core but I think what is going to really take off is in these surrounding areas that are booming. I hope that can bring the heart of downtown up, too.

[uptownbro]

The downtown population is now 60k. Up 2k (3%) from last year

[Wezle]

Exodus housing is planning an 8 story addition with 72 new units to their existing affordable housing building at 819 2nd Ave S.

https://lims.minneapolismn.gov/download ... eport2.pdf

[AshenLawrence]

Exodus housing is planning an 8 story addition with 72 new units to their existing affordable housing building at 819 2nd Ave S.

https://lims.minneapolismn.gov/download ... eport2.pdf

Looks like this link is dead now. This link should work?

[uptownbro]

The lumber exchange owners have submitted a land use permit for housing conversion. 182 units

[BikesOnFilm]

Sherman Associates and Hempel are pushing for a new adaptive reuse tax credit

It's not all good news though. Sherman wants it, in part, because they would take advantage of it to rehab and reuse the Wells Fargo operations center instead of moving forward on the Harmonia development.

[Bakken2016]

Sherman Associates and Hempel are pushing for a new adaptive reuse tax credit

It's not all good news though. Sherman wants it, in part, because they would take advantage of it to rehab and reuse the Wells Fargo operations center instead of moving forward on the Harmonia development.

Booooooo.

[BikesOnFilm]

Been a hot streak for downtown Minneapolis news lately. Paywalled article from MSPBJ about how Hempel will be opening a food hall on the ground floor of the Lasalle Building, occupying the space that used to be filled by the Rock Bottom Brewery.

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... e=2025-03-

Some of the sweet notes this article hits:

• Operating hours will be into the evening daily, and will be open even later on Friday/Saturday
• Tenants will be charged a percentage of their sales as rent and given a credit for building out their facade
• Hempel has experience doing this - their Downtown Milwaukee food hall made $15 million in revenue last year

It's beyond ridiculous that something hasn't existed in this area to serve the pre-show/post-show attendees of Hennepin Ave shows, and hopefully this is as successful as it sounds like it'll be.

Can we just preemptively give Hempel all the struggling buildings in downtown? At this point, if they told me they had a plan to make City Center a successful property again, I'd believe them.

[minntransplant]

Been a hot streak for downtown Minneapolis news lately. Paywalled article from MSPBJ about how Hempel will be opening a food hall on the ground floor of the Lasalle Building, occupying the space that used to be filled by the Rock Bottom Brewery.

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... e=2025-03-

Some of the sweet notes this article hits:

• Operating hours will be into the evening daily, and will be open even later on Friday/Saturday
• Tenants will be charged a percentage of their sales as rent and given a credit for building out their facade
• Hempel has experience doing this - their Downtown Milwaukee food hall made $15 million in revenue last year

It's beyond ridiculous that something hasn't existed in this area to serve the pre-show/post-show attendees of Hennepin Ave shows, and hopefully this is as successful as it sounds like it'll be.

Can we just preemptively give Hempel all the struggling buildings in downtown? At this point, if they told me they had a plan to make City Center a successful property again, I'd believe them.

This is awesome! Hempel has made some really nice changes to the lobby area as well. Hope they can keep up the momentum.

[twincitizen]

That could be a really great addition to downtown. I wonder what this bill would do, unless it's just to allow for a special liquor license.

State Rep. Katie Jones, DFL-Minneapolis, introduced a bill earlier this month that seeks to allow LaSalle Plaza to operate the food hall.

[Nick]

Poor Dayton’s . Sounds promising though!

[daveybabymsp]

Been a hot streak for downtown Minneapolis news lately. Paywalled article from MSPBJ about how Hempel will be opening a food hall on the ground floor of the Lasalle Building, occupying the space that used to be filled by the Rock Bottom Brewery.

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... e=2025-03-

Some of the sweet notes this article hits:

• Operating hours will be into the evening daily, and will be open even later on Friday/Saturday
• Tenants will be charged a percentage of their sales as rent and given a credit for building out their facade
• Hempel has experience doing this - their Downtown Milwaukee food hall made $15 million in revenue last year

It's beyond ridiculous that something hasn't existed in this area to serve the pre-show/post-show attendees of Hennepin Ave shows, and hopefully this is as successful as it sounds like it'll be.

Can we just preemptively give Hempel all the struggling buildings in downtown? At this point, if they told me they had a plan to make City Center a successful property again, I'd believe them.

Can’t read the whole article with paywall, but 16 restaurants and 700+ seats is awesome! Hope it thrives

[COLSLAW5]

Sounds similar to the on they built in Milwaukee 3rd street market. It was a really good vibe when I was there and had a lot to welcome more families with play areas and games

[Silophant]

That could be a really great addition to downtown. I wonder what this bill would do, unless it's just to allow for a special liquor license.

State Rep. Katie Jones, DFL-Minneapolis, introduced a bill earlier this month that seeks to allow LaSalle Plaza to operate the food hall.

Found the bill text. Looks like in 2017, a bill was passed specifically allowing Minneapolis to grant a liquor license to a food hall at 501 30th Ave SE (Malcolm Yards), and this bill adds "or 800 LaSalle Avenue" to that. No idea why these food halls need a special state law to operate and Graze, Eat Street Social, etc, don't seem to.

[twincitizen]

Without getting into the minutiae of MN liquor laws, it likely has to do with who holds the liquor license and whether that same entity also owns/operates the restaurant(s) directly. If the business entity owning/operating the food hall holds the liquor license but doesn't operate any of the restaurants, they likely need this special permission added as they might not be eligible for a "regular" on-sale liquor license under the law.

[seanrichardryan]

Like Malcom yards, they have the license and operate the bars/ tap wall. Vendors are all just food, but you can take liquor into their leased spaces. Same for East Street. Half of my current job is navigating compliance for a hospitality company, and it's... complicated. Setting a liquor service area outside your lease/ ownership area is a big hang-up, and usually only allowed with a temporary expansion of premisis (like a street festival) that still requires physical barriers.

[Blaisdell Greenway]

Katie has been doing great so far in the legislature. Glad to see this.

[MNdible]

Katie may or may not be doing great so far, but this is pretty basic stuff that Hempel probably paid a lobbyist to write and plopped it on her desk for her to put her sponsorship signature on.