An interesting article on Target development plans in the Twin Cities Business Monthly, giving most of the credit for the downtown Mpls boom to the Target Corp. It's something I've heard before . . . (though only from Target employees).Downtown's growth in all areas last year -- office, retail, and even residential -- can be credited in part to Target. Experts agree that the retailer's exponential growth has meant more people working and living downtown, which in turn drives other businesses in the area.
"If there are five key factors to downtown growth, they are Target, Target, Target, Target, and Target," says Russel Nelson, presdient of Nelson Tietz & Hoye, a Minneapolis commercial real estate and project management firm. Target employs approximately 10,000 "team members" in the downtown area, up from about 7,000 employees at the beginnin of 2003, Michaud says.
Meanwhile, the vacancy rate for office space downtown dropped to 19 percent in the third quarter of last year, after hovering above 20 perrcent for most of the previous three years.
The article goes on to make mention of the fact that the Target expansion is happening, not in downtown, but in Brooklyn Park -- far to the north [sic].
It begs the question: Is the "downtown revival" overblown? Is it mostly due to one corporation's growth? Or, is it part of a bigger lifestyle/mindset change?
I'd probably agree with you, that the downtown is much bigger than one company... but many people i've talked to have said that Target is the main reason why office vacancy rates are falling.
ReplyDeletei don't really know though.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI just discovered your blog today 2/28 and really enjoy it. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who obsesses over these things in the twin cities.
Anyway, to your point about Target and its impact on the downtown revival, I'm sure that it's not a small part. Target fills both towers of Target Plaza, a few floors of the RETEK building and almost all of the ugly brown monolith that is the City Center. It also fills those buildings with relatively well paid young hip types that would want to live downtown.
However, it is also expanding out in Brooklyn Park. However, this hasn't been felt in the downtown area as Target is still developing its facilities out north. It only has three buildings at the moment, but is building more. It owns well over 300 acres out there. But when it does complete those buildings, expect a lot of job loss to Brooklyn Park as all of the rented space in the City Center, RETEK and other downtown buidlings is left behind for Target's own land up north. Ideally, I would think, Target only wants people in Target Plaza and in Brooklyn Park, so its jobs are entirely on Target owned land, and when this happens, the City Center is going to go back to being vacant.