Downtown East >> West

Carletta Sweet can claim pioneer status as a downtown resident. When she first moved into her RiverWest apartment in 1991, she was surrounded by almost nothing but a sea of parking lots. “Many people wondered why I was in that dead area of downtown,” she says.

But Sweet, an editor for a small business consultant, became active in the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association and in other community efforts, giving her a firsthand look at what was coming: A condo boom, including the conversion of her own apartment building; the new Guthrie Theater; Mill City Museum; a farmer’s market; Spoonriver and other new restaurants; the Stone Arch Bridge and walking trails; and the coming MacPhail Center for Music and neighboring Gold Medal Park. And that was just in her immediate vicinity.

Just a short hop across the Hennepin Avenue Bridge will take her to a new Lunds grocery store in the East Bank neighborhood, and by 2009 a Whole Foods will move into a 290-unit condominium site where the Jaguar dealership now resides at Washington and Hennepin on the edge of the North Loop neighborhood. Downtown East and West has also made over Nicollet Avenue with a new Macy’s, the new Central Library, and a renovated City Center, and is preparing for the impact of a new Twins stadium.

After years of fundraising, the Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center should break ground in 2007 and open by late 2008. And new luxury hotels like The Chambers on Hennepin Avenue; the Ivy, near the Convention Center; the Westin, at 6th and Marquette; and a W Hotel in the Foshay Tower offer the promise of new business, art, restaurants, and a touch of glamour.

“I have enjoyed watching the resurrection of downtown and the new vitality here,” Sweet says. “The influx of people is helping to turn this area into a true neighborhood community.”

Retail Challenges
To maintain downtown’s momentum, planners, residents, and business owners agree that the next priorities are transportation, green space, safety, and, above all, retail development.

“The city is still not green enough or family friendly enough,” says Sam Grabarski, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council. “Some streets have pockets of extraordinary things to see and do, and some are still kind of scary.”

There are noticeable gaps in City Center and along Hennepin Avenue, for example, where prime real estate remains vacant. Many think a stronger presence of unique shops and services will provide some of the glue that will help attract and retain more people. “We have 300,000 workers, visitors, and residents downtown,” Grabarski says. “Yet we don’t enjoy their full loyalty from a retail perspective. Most people who work downtown still do half or more of their shopping away from downtown.”

Grabarski says that compared to some cities, Minneapolis has a good base of department stores—Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Off 5th. The challenge is to build on them to provide a retail mix that can rival the one-stop-shopping appeal of a suburban mall.

Transportation and green space are critical components of a master plan. Minneapolis has eight transportation initiatives under way, including more light rail development, parking revisions, bike trail extensions, and a walkability plan. Mayor R. T. Rybak has encouraged investment in a citywide streetcar system. A possible McKnight grant and a public land trust initiative would identify potential spaces for a public park and other green spaces.

Master Plans
Grabarski says Minneapolis will hire an urban planner to help draft and coordinate a plan for the city’s retail future. Frank Guzzetta, chair and CEO of Macy’s North and a recent transplant from Washington, DC, says Minneapolis can learn from DC’s mistakes. When that city was struggling to revive its downtown, he says, city leaders zoned all new buildings with retail on the first floor.

“It sounded like a great idea, but no retailer would come in without another [adjacent] because you can’t exist on your own,” Guzzetta says. “Retail stayed empty because there was no plan.” Within the last four years since city leaders adopted a more cohesive approach, DC’s downtown has begun to thrive. “All of a sudden, there’s life back on the streets.”

Deliberate planning, however, must be matched by speed, Grabarski and Guzzetta say, because Minneapolis is at a critical tipping point. “Retail could go down before it goes up,” Grabarski says. “There is no guarantee that five years from now we’ll still have 2 million square feet of retail—it all depends on creating a brighter future for ourselves.”

Nobody feels this pressure more acutely than David Sternberg, senior vice president of the Midwest and Mountain region operations for Brookfield Properties, a Toronto-based commercial real estate company that owns City Center. Ever since he joined Brookfield in 2003, Sternberg has been up against the image of City Center as a rundown, dangerous place to be, despite its recent $15 million makeover and increased security. A new Brazilian restaurant, Fogo de Chao, will open this spring on the corner of 7th and Hennepin, and Sternberg hopes he’ll have commitments for other major first-floor anchors in 2007.

“It takes time to get folks engaged and to see the value of this site,” he says. “Many are working off of what it was, and they need to understand what it is now.”

Sternberg hopes he can be successful in helping create an overall stronger downtown. “We need people to embrace downtown as part of their neighborhood, as part of us.” 

5 Great Spots »First Avenue Minneapolis’s foremost live music club is a thirty-six-year-old icon and still a beacon for downtown nightlife. 701 1st Ave. N., 612-338-8388 »Minneapolis Central Library Plenty of tables, computers, free WiFi, a Dunn Bros Coffee, and endless floor-to-ceiling windows make this an indispensable space for working, learning, book browsing, and people watching. 300 Nicollet Mall, 612-630-6000 »Stone Arch Bridge More than 100 years after it was built, this granite and limestone landmark, with its gorgeous design and views, is finally getting its due as a valued addition to the city’s pedestrian park and trail system. Intersection of West River Road and Portland Avenue »Mill City Museum Minnesota’s past links up gracefully with its present, from the artfully incorporated Mill Ruins Park to its interactive water lab and flour-mill displays. 704 S. 2nd St., 612-341-7555 »Guthrie Theater Opening to national architectural acclaim, the Guthrie’s new home along the river delivers a dynamic mix of exciting performance and public space with three theaters, a lounge, two restaurants, and a gift shop. 818 S. 2nd St., 612-377-2224