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When Minneapolis Downtown Council president and CEO Adam Duininck took the stage at the organization’s 69th annual meeting at the Armory on Wednesday, he noted that the crowd was a bit larger than it’s been in recent years.

“There’s a lot of energy coming out of 2024,” he told a crowd of around 1,000 attendees. “We’re building on that momentum with a clear vision of what’s next. We even have the biggest room we’ve had since Covid.”

To be sure, nearly five years after the pandemic uprooted the steady stream of office workers in downtown Minneapolis, it’s not exactly clear where the city’s central business district will go next. But Duininck and other council leaders took the annual meeting to reaffirm the ambitious goals they put forth in their 2035 strategic plan, including a bid to redevelop the Mississippi Riverfront.

As in prior years, council staff and other downtown leaders took the stage one by one to share a parade of statistics from the prior year. Notably, they reported that the population in downtown Minneapolis ticked up again. In 2024, downtown added about 2,000 residents, bringing the total population to 60,549 people, up 3.7% over the prior year.

Meanwhile, developers pulled about $1.8 billion worth of construction permits last year. That marked the 13th consecutive year exceeding $1 billion, according to the council.

Still, the changing commercial real estate landscape weighs heavy on the future of downtowns here and across the nation. Council leaders shared that there was a significant level of net migration of office space out of downtown Minneapolis last year. To wit: Downtown saw a total loss of 112,143 square feet worth of office tenants in 2024, alongside a gain of just about 27,000 square feet worth of office tenants.

“The overall net migration was negative; however, there were 15 relocations into downtown, and 20 renewal transactions, demonstrating the strong commitment that existing tenants are making downtown,” said Barry Stoffel of Gardner Builders.

He noted that there was also a “trend of investing in downtown real estate through renovations,” such as at the Northstar Center.

John Marshall, who’s set to succeed SPS Commerce’s Karin Lucas as the next chair of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, maintained that the area is “on the brink of a true renaissance.”

“The residential growth alone is staggering,” said Marshall, a regional vice president with Xcel Energy. “Our city is very much evolving, and with continued collaboration and investment from each of you, we’re going to have the opportunity to build a vibrant, dynamic, and thriving downtown together.”