Downtown Minneapolis now has more residents than Edina, Minnetonka, and Apple Valley, some of the Twin Cities area’s biggest and most affluent suburbs.

Minneapolis’ core gained 2,140 residents and surpassed 60,000 for its total population in 2024, according to data from the Minneapolis Downtown Council and Downtown Improvement District.

“There are more people that want to live in downtown Minneapolis than ever before,” Mayor Jacob Frey said Wednesday during the Downtown Council and DID’s annual meeting at the Armory.

Since 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, around 9,200 new residents have moved to downtown Minneapolis.

The Downtown Council set a goal of 100,000 downtown Minneapolis residents in its 2035 plan, Downtown by Design, which was published in November.

Another effort supported by the Downtown Council is the conversion of 3 million square feet of commercial space into residential. The recently-completed Groove Lofts at Northstar Center transformed a vacant 13-story office building, measuring around 329,000 square feet, into a 216-unit apartment building.

Downtown Minneapolis added 30 new businesses in 2024, including Brühaven Craft Co. in Loring Park, Hermine in the Warehouse District, and Fitchn in the Mill District.

Hennepin Healthcare was downtown Minneapolis’ largest employer for the second year in a row, with about 7,500 employees in 2024. The operator of Hennepin County Medical Center overtook Target Corp., which held the top spot for many years, in the Downtown Council’s 2023 year in review.

When it comes to office leasing, there were 15 relocations and 20 renewal transitions in 2024, but an overall net loss of about 85,000 square feet of occupied space as companies left downtown Minneapolis.

“We have so much to be proud of in 2024,” Downtown Council and DID President and CEO Adam Duininck said Wednesday during the meeting, which drew almost 1,000 people. “We have challenges to meet, but the momentum of downtown is palpable and measurable.”