Downtown Minneapolis is evolving: It’s no longer a few blocks but an ecosystem of distinct villages

When I hear important conversations happening today about the future of downtown Minneapolis — and especially when people say they want it to be what it used to be — I flash back to a memory from those “good old days”:

It was 1985, and I had brought an out-of-town visitor to the top floor of the IDS Center. Leading him to the floor-to-ceiling windows, I swelled with civic pride, certain he would swoon over the city I loved.

Instead he looked for a while and, puzzled, turned to me and asked: “Where is it?” I was deflated but knew immediately what he meant. Back then, downtown had a lot going on around the IDS, including one of the strongest department stores in the country, but the urban vista dropped off to almost nothing within a few blocks. My visitor looked toward the riverfront and saw railroad tracks and abandoned land; toward the Metrodome and saw an ocean of parking lots; toward Loring Park and saw almost none of the housing that stands there today; and toward warehouses that filled what we now know as the North Loop.

I tell this story now, as the Minneapolis Foundation releases a report on ideas for revitalizing downtown, because it’s a reminder that the past isn’t as perfect as we remember, and it shouldn’t be the model for our future.

Think of a great city you’ve explored on foot. I suspect it had more to offer than a few square blocks. You probably wandered through several districts with distinct landmarks, sights, and sounds. You can absolutely do that in Minneapolis today, in a way that was not possible 40 years ago. A short walk connects the vitality of the North Loop to whole neighborhoods that have grown in Loring Park and along the river. Those surface lots around the old Metrodome? They are now the thriving community of East Town, where more than $2 billion in investment includes thousands of housing units, offices for Thrivent and Wells Fargo, a new stadium, a renovated armory, two extraordinary parks, an expanded Hennepin County Medical Center, and more.

So our first recommendation in this report is to think less about a few blocks and more about the broader Villages of Downtown Minneapolis. These distinct communities are a short walk from each other, and thinking of them as one ecosystem creates opportunities we never could have imagined just a few years ago.

We also must recognize that even if we wanted to replicate the past, we couldn’t:

• Massive changes in retail, especially the collapse of big department stores, mean Nicollet will never be solely a shopping street again.
• Remote work has massively shifted the daily office population. While a large core of downtown tenants remains, it’s unlikely we will ever see them all in the office on weekdays from 8 to 5.

Recognizing these challenges and the opportunities they present, the Minneapolis Foundation leapt at the chance to deepen the vision for the next stage of downtown. Fortunately, there are already robust discussions underway, including the Downtown Council’s long-term planning process, the mayor’s task force on animating Nicollet, and the Abundant Cities series that the foundation sponsored with the Walker Art Center.

We saw a need to harvest some of the best ideas out there, lift up common themes, and fuse them into a more comprehensive vision. To do that we hired a team of three people with deep experience making things happen in Minneapolis: Sarah Harris, David Frank and Beth Shogren.

Their report adds depth and insight to some issues that have been widely discussed — like taking traffic off Nicollet Mall and connecting the Mall to the riverfront — while also elevating issues that deserve more attention, including how the traditional office core must be reimagined to welcome a greater diversity of uses and users.

Three key themes emerge:

Shifting from an 8-hour to a 24-hour downtown. For too long, downtown has focused on white-collar workers. Now we have an opportunity to create more spaces where people can not only work, but also live, play, educate and shop. Let’s look to convert building spaces to post-COVID uses, support a diverse mix of entrepreneurs, and transform local anchors such as the downtown post office and Nicollet Mall.

Creating common ground. Beautiful and activated spaces attract people and generate buzz. Investing in streetscape plantings and organizing more can’t-miss events are just two ideas for bringing new energy downtown.

Moving from monoculture to multi-culture. Our community’s diversity is a strength from which we can draw solutions. We should celebrate the existing abundance of downtown’s neighborhoods and emphasize connections between them to encourage growth. And to design a downtown that works for everyone, we need to listen to everyone — especially those who may not have been welcome in the past.

Downtown Minneapolis has reinvented itself many times before, and more successfully than most cities in the country. In the past, those efforts were usually led by a small group of people, most of whom ran big businesses in the central business district. This time, the coalition must be much bigger and much more diverse, especially if we want downtown to be more central to more people, over more hours in a day, with more diverse uses.

All this means we shouldn’t be waiting for a few heroes to “save the day.” City building is not a spectator sport. So read the report, find an idea or two that resonates with you, and find a way to play a role in writing the next chapter of downtown Minneapolis.

R.T. Rybak is president and chief executive officer of the Minneapolis Foundation. He was mayor of Minneapolis from 2002-14.