What You Can Do for Downtown Minneapolis
In early March, Twin Cities Business and Mpls.St.Paul Magazine invited a group of influential business leaders and entrepreneurs to a brainstorm session at the Minneapolis Club. We called it The Big Think: For the Love of Downtown and challenged attendees to bring ideas that could help revitalize the central business district.
We included people who live and work downtown and those who do not, because a thriving downtown should matter to all of us. It’s vital to our region’s economy and to our national reputation. Downtown is the front door through which outsiders peer when entertaining a job offer, making vacation plans, deciding where to establish or move their business or to hold their next conference.
Theatergoing is back, sports are drawing big crowds, but we need to activate the in-between times—the average weekday—and give people new and compelling reasons to be downtown (not just the North Loop). We can’t keep waiting for the largest employers to bring workers back—the workweek is never going to look the same as it did before Covid-19. We, like other metropolitan areas across the country, need to focus more on what’s next. What purpose does downtown serve in a hybrid work world? How do we make it a magnet for all?
Nearly 100 people showed up for our brainstorm: ad agency CEOs, marketing execs, startup founders, entertainment venue owners, restaurateurs, architects, retailers, event planners. They set aside conflicts and complaints to dream up new ideas (and a few old ones; we were surprised by the amount of interest in bringing
Holidazzle back to Nicollet Mall). Suggestions ranged from more attractions along the riverfront (a carousel, a permanent marketplace) to a skating rink at the Government Center Plaza. There were calls to incentivize businesses to keep them from flocking to the suburbs, such as lowering office and entertainment taxes and subsidized parking. A vertically integrated urban food district—think Pike Place Market in Seattle—was a top vote-getter in our informal poll.
But the idea that prompted the largest applause came from the table hosted by TCB executive editor Adam Platt: a weekly “Downtown Day” when businesses of all kinds work together to remove barriers and add perks that make it compelling to work, network, and have fun in the heart of downtown. It’s going to take more than the Minneapolis Downtown Council programming the occasional free concert or pop-up market. The key to really getting this off the ground is a commitment from businesses, large and small. Here are some possibilities:
- If your company offices downtown, commit to getting the team there each week for Downtown Day. Maybe that means an in-person meeting, catered lunch, or parking vouchers.
- Co-working centers and companies with empty desks could open their spaces to people who want to try working downtown.
- Restaurants and bars agree to open for both lunch and dinner; happy hour specials welcome.
- Create a summer concert series on Nicollet and get downtown employers to underwrite the costs or even help with the programming.
- Stand up a communal outdoor office where people could reserve a spot to hold a meeting or work independently. Maybe the utility companies provide the power and WiFi, and Room & Board, Blu Dot, or HOM Furniture furnish it.
- Set up an innovation hub in Crystal Court or City Center and have successful entrepreneurs or investors volunteer each week to hold “office hours” when startup founders can get 15 minutes of their counsel. Target Corp. buyers could do the same for product makers.
- All the programming we can dream up for Nicollet: food trucks, markets, a pickle ball tournament.
There’s power in numbers. If a few big players get on board, more will follow. We’ve made the pitch to the mayor’s office and Downtown Council. Both expressed enthusiasm and said they are working on plans. At press time, they were not ready to set a day of the week for Downtown Day; I’m hopeful that will be determined by early April.
Let’s be ready to make the most of it.
