I have been working with plenty of Buyers these days that are asking about condo and loft foreclosures in downtown Minneapolis.  Many of them want to know how to go about seeing these units and more importantly if they are worth checking out.  Others are asking the big picture question everyone seems to want to know which is: where is this market going?  My response on this has been a few stats from 2008 and also some qualitive data that I see with the Buyers and Sellers that I come into contact with.  Looking at a few stats 2008, downtown Minneapolis started out with roughly 800 or so listings, as of 12/1/2008 70% of those listings have gone pending or sold which is roughly the same amount of activity that has occured in 2007–not amazing year over year numbers however not bad given the times.  The average (mean) price of a new-construction condo in 2008 is currently 10.8% higher than 2007; $389,094 in 2008 vs. $351,205 in 2007 for a never-lived-in 1-2 bedroom, 1,450-square-foot Downtown home.  Couple this with the fact that every weekend when I hold an open house I get the same consistent buyer demographic: everyone from all walks of life wants to make the move downtown.  Bear in mind these events are happening in trying economic times.  My point is despite this ecomonic period buyers are still making the decision to purchase downtown.

  This picture is a shot of the a unit on the ground level of the restored Whitney Building located in the Mill District.  Click the picture for an interesting story on another couple making the move downtown from another part of the country.

  I have noticed more and more, when I sit down with clients to find out the reason for choosing to live in downtown Minneapolis over the burbs a big issue that comes up is: Transportation Costs.  As gas prices trend upward it has struck a nerve with Buyers and the market is responding.  We are seeing much more Buyer and Seller activity within the downtown core than anywhere else in the market right now and to be honest I don’t see this changing anytime soon.  In the past Buyers lived the urban life for a variety of reasons.  Now Buyers are being lured into city living now for some very specific economic reasons-transportation costs.  It is universally accepted that low gas prices-while they move up and down a bit-are a thing of the past in our country.  As this happens I see more Buyer’s taking a step back and asking a serious question: How much time and money do I want to spend commuting?

One of the last sites along the Mill District is soon to be home to apartment towers, townhomes and a green-roofed parking ramp.  The Marmont Apartments will be a 358-unit rental project at 2nd Street and 11th Avenue South.  The project is being developed by veteren Steve Frenz, the developer behind the Bookmen Lofts and Bookmen Stacks in the North Loop.   A green roof would top the two-story parking ramp. The roof would include a lap pool and green space for residents that overlooks the river and Gold Medal Park. Frenz said the ramp would be partially masked by two residential towers, 10 and 12 stories high. The towers would be connected by a glass bridge and wrapped in 10 townhomes, two stories each, fronting South 2nd Street and 11th Avenue.  

A bike and coffee shop would stand near Gold Medal Park on the corner of 11th Avenue and 2nd Street, Frenz said. 

This would be the second apartment project to develop within the Mill District as earlier this year Village Green Companies went to the city with plans of a 5 story apartment building on the site of the former “Portland” condo development west of the Park Ave Lofts.  Stay tuned for another update on the Mill District development!

  One of the most recently completed buildings to change the skyline of Minneapolis has been Skyscape Condominiums.  This 27 story building is located right next to Grant Park Tower and the Ivy Hotel+Residences in Elliot Park, an urban  neighborhood on the southeastern side of the city dotted with mostly historical brownstones.  Skyscape is mixed-use which means there is a great commercial component on the first floor of the building.  Currently there is a pan-asian restaurant called Otho with another fine restaurant slated to commence build-out in the coming months. 

  To the residents that live in Skyscape, the main attraction has always been access to the city skyways and light rail transit that connects the city with the Mall of America and the Minneapolis Airport.  Living only blocks away from jumping into the Skyway has made the urban commute enjoyable and now bearable for some during the Winter season!

The Foshay building has been credited as “the first skyscraper west of the Mississippi”, although some previous structures in Minneapolis were considered by some to be skyscrapers. Because the building was designed to echo the Washington Monument, the sides of the building slope slightly inward, and each floor of the Foshay Tower is slightly smaller than the one below it. Local businessman Ralph Burnet is in the process of spending $75 million to raise the building back from the past to create a W Hotel and Restaurant as well as update the commercial on the first few floors. Click the picture above for a brief slide show of the progress.

One of the latest editions to the Minneapolis skyline is set to open soon, the Hotel Ivy+Residences at 201 S. 11th St. on Feb. 13, featuring a spa and the “modern Americana” restaurant Porter & Frye.

The hotel’s 136 rooms have limestone bathrooms, 400-thread-count Italian linens and in-room video games.

Porter & Frye is located in the ground floor of the old Ivy tower, which most recently served as an office building until the heating system failed in 1993.

The project unveiling wraps up a two-year construction schedule. The $47 million project is nearly 90% sold at the IVY, and closings are scheduled to start this winter.

Milliken Development, owner of the former Washington Ave Jaguar Dealership announced January 14th they plan to go before the Minneapolis Planning Commission to finalize the details of a mixed-use project. The project currently is set to include a Whole Foods on the first floor with some other commercial components. Above the ground level would be six floors of high-end apartments totaling approximately 250 units. The developers noted the block would be developed in such a way as to allow future expansion of an additional two towers reaching somewhere between 12 and 20 stories respectively. Once approved through the city Milliken Development would begin demolition as early as spring of next year. The developer plans to achieve a base LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which is a designation for sustainable design.

Over the past few years there have evolved a few sites on the web that give anyone relatively easy access to real estate listings all over the country. Recently the site Trulia has taken things a step further by incorporating the mounds of data from the MLS (local Real Estate listing service) and google maps together on one site. Since its launch in September of 2005, the site has grown to 1.5 million unique monthly visitors with 2 million properties for sale. The site’s “heat maps” allow users to compare prices and popularity by state, county, city or neighborhood. The local real estate guides provide information such as sales statistics, real estate price trends and community information such as crime statistics. Click the picture below for a tour.