By Ben Shardlow, chief of staff for the Minneapolis Downtown Council and Downtown Improvement District

With the passage of the Metropolitan Council’s Imagine 2050 plan earlier this month, there has been an active public dialogue on where and how our region should grow over the next 25 years. Commentary on this plan has focused on areas of the region where housing density is controversial, but I am pleased to report good news from the center of our region: Residential development is working in downtown Minneapolis, and we look forward to welcoming many more neighbors downtown in the decades to come.

Last Wednesday, one week after Imagine 2050 passed, the Mpls Downtown Council & DID announced that the residential population of downtown Minneapolis has surpassed 60,000, having added 9,200 new residents since 2020. This might be a staggering figure for some people – our downtown has more residents than all but 16 cities in the state, including large suburban communities like Edina, Apple Valley, and Minnetonka. 

This did not used to be the case – in 2010, our residential population was 35,000. What changed? Since that time, there has been broad alignment between local government, the business community, and other stakeholders that dense residential development in the urban core is a win-win. Building more housing closer to employment opportunities, services, amenities, and transit service isn’t just good in theory – it’s popular. Multi-unit housing in urban centers like ours creates a virtuous cycle, with more residents drawn to high-amenity areas, able to walk or make short trips to destinations, and sustain neighborhood-oriented retailers. Every new housing project downtown has asked the question, “Do people want to live here?” And the answer, again and again, is yes.

Do people want to live in downtown’s riverfront neighborhoods like the Mill District, the East Bank, and the North Loop? Yes. Do people want to live in our historic neighborhoods like Loring Park and Elliot Park? Yes. Do people want to live close to five grocery stores, the Stone Arch Bridge, parks and trails, arenas and theaters, the skyway system, great bars and restaurants, architectural landmarks, and the best transit service in the state? Market rate, affordable, and workforce housing? Yes, yes, and yes. As people move into downtown’s first major office-to-residential conversion, Groove Lofts at Northstar Center, it’s clear that many people want to live in the center of it all, we just need to give them the opportunity.

The 2035 Plan that our organization just released, Downtown by Design, envisions a future in which we continue to lean into residential growth by cultivating unique, mixed-use neighborhoods. That is our path to grow to a downtown population of 100,000 people. The Met Council is projecting that Minneapolis will grow by just over 80,000 people by 2050, and we’d love for half of that growth to be downtown. The work ahead of us is to reduce barriers so more housing units can be built, working collaboratively with residents to make downtown an even better place to live, and building out services to accommodate that growth. 

For future residents, the goal is to offer a great quality of life. For the future workforce, the benefits are more and better retail and services when they are downtown. For visitors, the benefits are more eyes on the street, more lively public spaces, and more and better dining and entertainment. And for those who, for whatever reason, choose not to spend time downtown, building more housing downtown preserves affordability in the market overall, and reduces the need for lower-density growth on the fringes of our region.

For anyone who is as excited about this path forward as we are, there is one measure under consideration at the legislature this year that would unlock and expedite the potential for residential growth in ours and other urban centers across the state. The Conversion of Underutilized Buildings – or CUB – tax credit would enable the financing of vacant and underutilized buildings to be adapted to new uses. This is a common-sense solution to current market realities that would drive investment in Minnesota’s cities and small towns, bring new life to existing buildings, and jumpstart work in the construction sector. Like building more housing downtown, we see this as a win-win for all of us.

As we celebrate reaching the 60,000 resident milestone, we look forward to continued growth in the decade to come as a key part of downtown contributing to the quality of life for everyone in the region.