Redistricting

Rimarcik, though not a developer, did become a significant property owner in the Warehouse District—largely, he says, “by accident.” In some cases, he bought with plans to open new restaurants. The Lakeland Floral building on Third Street, which he recently sold, was one of those purchases. In others, it was to keep buildings out of the hands of X-rated businesses. (A 1986 zoning law gave strip joints and other “adult” entertainment the bum’s rush out of residential neighborhoods, requiring them to move downtown.)

Earlier this year, Rimarcik sold most of the block that the Monte Carlo sits on to New York developer Fred Deutsch, who plans to create a complex of condos, hotel rooms, apartments, and retail space. The Monte Carlo will remain where it is, under Rimarcik’s continued ownership. He still owns several other properties, including a part of the St. Anthony Main complex that he acquired in 1994.

Another early adapter of Warehouse District buildings was Chuck Leer, who began doing redevelopment work there in the mid-’80s. His recent projects include the condo conversion in the 801 Washington building, and now Tower Lofts, a mixed-use condo development at 700 North Washington Avenue. That structure was built in 1920 and was home to the Flour City Brush Company, a manufacturer of equipment for food processors. Leer and his partners bought the building in 2004.

Of the Warehouse District’s transformation in the ’70s and ’80s, Leer says buildings “didn’t lend themselves easily and efficiently to modern industrial uses. The exodus to the suburbs had already begun.” But a key event leading to the area’s new boom also took place in those years: the closing of the big scrap yards around the intersection of Plymouth Avenue and North Washington in the mid-1980s.

“Those were all polluted industrial lands, and the MCDA [Minneapolis Community Development Agency] did a beautiful job doing the environmental cleanup and recycling those lands,” Leer says. “So now there are some thriving businesses up there—printing companies and some distributors and a whole network of businesses. And that sort of forms the bookend on Washington Avenue and solidified the north end of the North Loop. Then development could move down Washington Avenue.”

Even more significant was Hennepin County’s rebuilding and repaving of North Washington, which took place between 1999 and 2001. “It was almost dangerous driving down Washington Avenue because of the potholes in the street,” Leer says. “And they did a wonderful job of reclaiming Washington from Hennepin up to West Broadway. All new sidewalks, all new streetlights, a new water main. There had been a 100-year-old water main in there. We could not have done 801 Washington Lofts without Hennepin County doing the infrastructure, because we wouldn’t have had the water pressure.”

Meanwhile, old rail lines that had long lined the riverfront (and slowed new development) from the Mill District up to Plymouth Avenue were being removed. A former rail yard between First and Second Streets in the Warehouse District became home to several blocks of new condominiums, as well as a Marriott TownePlace Suites. Only two rail lines remain in downtown: An old Soo Line track that comes in from North Minneapolis for trains schlepping giant rolls of paper to the Star Tribune’s First Street North printing plant and other printers in the North Loop, and a Burlington Northern Santa Fe line that parallels Second Avenue North and crosses the river at Nicollet Island.