Downtown's Next Renovation?

In the 1990s, Minneapolis’s Neighborhood Revitalization Program also started channeling funds into Elliot Park.

Braun says that in those years, EPNI began to realize that it “needed to diversify the economy, as in bringing people into the neighborhood with means. Because you can’t attract retail when such a large portion of the neighborhood population is low income.” Her colleague Fields calls it “luring more wallets.”

Many urban neighborhoods have looked suspiciously upon development as a dark conspiracy of The Man to push The People out of their homes and crush small businesses. But Elliot Park has “a neighborhood association filled with people who want development. It’s not common!” says Minneapolis City Council member Lisa Goodman, whose ward covers much of downtown and south Minneapolis, including Elliot Park.

Some wallets had already found their way into the neighborhood, coming in to rehab old brownstones. One of the earliest renovations was the 41-unit Rappahannock Flats on Ninth Street, a 1900 structure that was converted to condos in 1982. Selling prices now average between $149,000 and $160,000. 

In the late 1990s, Aeon purchased a group of 1880s brownstones called the Lenox with plans to turn them into low-income rental housing. With EPNI pressing for the Lenox to be owner occupied, Aeon sold in 2002 to Ned Abdul, who has owned numerous older properties in the central city. Abdul converted the Lenox into 24 condos and added underground parking. Units have sold for between $315,000 to $340,000.

Picturesque buildings like the Lenox are one of the factors that makes Elliot Park an attractive up-and-coming area. Andrea Christenson, a vice president with the Minneapolis office of real estate services company Colliers Turley Martin Tucker (she is handling retail-space sales for the Skyscape condo development in Elliot Park), believes that Elliot Park has benefited from the demand for housing in all the downtown neighborhoods. A significant percentage of these new downtowners are emptynesters, a demographic isn’t being affected by the current economic crisis. The rising cost of gasoline, she adds, should continue to make downtown living appealing.