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FeedMaking a Neighborhood
Service businesses follow residents into downtown Minneapolis
By Andrew Tellijohn
Photo by walter vasconcelos (Illustration)
(page 1 of 2)
Renovation on the North Star Lofts in downtown Minneapolis began in the spring of 1998, an event that turned out to be the leading edge of an urban development boom. Today, some nine years and dozens of condo and loft projects later, 30,300 people call downtown home.Still, it takes more than residents to make a neighborhood. The city has done its part by revitalizing the riverfront, adding light rail transit, and encouraging additional housing development. The retail and service businesses necessary to make downtown a vibrant neighborhood have also followed the residential wave. “There’s a certain critical mass that has to happen for retailers to make the plunge,” says Scott Parkin, a downtown resident and director of marketing with S.R. Hoffman & Associates, which sells urban condos and townhomes.
And plunge they have. Two grocers are entering the downtown market, filling a void long lamented by Minneapolis officials and area residents. Lunds recently opened a store just across the river, on University Avenue Southeast, and will open a second location at 12th Street and Hennepin Avenue later this year. Whole Foods Market is set to open at the corner of Washington and Hennepin Avenues by late 2009.
Handy grocery stores are one of the draws for residents like Justin Sirota, a 32-year-old software developer. A St. Louis Park transplant who has lived downtown for two years, Sirota has considered moving to Uptown. The area feels safer, he says, and he likes running around the lakes—plus, there are grocery stores, movie rental stores, and more casual bars and restaurants. But then Lunds and Whole Foods announced their plans and the legislature approved the Minnesota Twins stadium, giving the downtown neighborhood a boost. “I think it still has a ways to go,” Sirota says. “But things are starting to catch up downtown. Things are turning around.”
Minneapolis City Councilwoman Lisa Goodman, who represents downtown, says the retail turnaround started when the city began encouraging developers to build housing downtown. Once they responded, people started moving in, and service retailers followed. Recent additions include much more than grocery stores: Pet daycare centers, a yoga studio, a drycleaner with valet service for area residents, and a summertime farmer’s market have also sprung up.
Brenda Langton, owner and operator of Café Brenda in the Warehouse District, opened Spoonriver between Mill City Museum and the new Guthrie Theater in June 2006. Langton also was instrumental in establishing a farmer’s market in the neighborhood. More than 40 farmers took part during 2006, the Mill City Farmers Market’s first year, and she expects more in the upcoming season. “The farmer’s market is going to be a real integral part in the summer months of making this feel like a neighborhood,” she says. “The best part about this location is it’s in the heart of the city, yet it is a neighborhood.”
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