Elliot Park has at least a couple of distinctions among Minneapolis neighborhoods. For one thing, it may be the least known. Bordered by the Metrodome and Hennepin County Medical Center to the north, and by interstates 94 and 35 to the south and east, it’s something of an island.
It’s also one of the few corners of downtown that, unlike the riverfront (condos, restaurants, Guthrie) or the Warehouse District (more condos, more restaurants, new ballpark, transit hub) or even Nicollet, LaSalle, and Hennepin avenues (Target headquarters, MacPhail Center, University of St. Thomas campus, new library, Block E, Pantages Theater) hasn’t seen major renewal in the past decade or so.
But that’s changing, thanks to a few new residential developments, and a steadfast belief among some key organizations in the neighborhood’s potential.
Elliot Park does have its charms: handsome old brownstones, the 1930s-era Band Box Diner on 10th Street, and Elliot Park itself, which fronts Hennepin County Medical Center. It also has challenges: a jumble of parking lots, social-service facilities, and in its old business district vacant storefronts.
In recent years, though, it’s added new housing in the East Village apartments and townhomes on 11th Avenue, and in two successful condo projects: Grant Park on Grant Street and Skyscape at 10th and Portland, which incorporates small-scale retail—for now, the Otho pan-Asian restaurant and lounge.
The condo boom has cooled way off and Elliot Park has its share of stalled projects. Still, some in the neighborhood believe they can build on recent momentum, especially because of proximity to downtown, to the Metrodome light-rail station, and perhaps most important, to Chicago Avenue—which the city and business interests envision as a life-sciences corridor running all the way from HCMC past Abbott Northwestern Hospital and surrounding clinics out to Lake Street.
HCMC and the city could be central players in a renewal of the Elliot Park neighborhood. HCMC has plans to acquire land there and build a new central building that will unite the clinics that are now scattered throughout its four-block campus. It also wants to upgrade its image from public hospital to hospital of choice.
For now, says David Fields of the nonprofit Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc., the hope is to facilitate partnerships between developers and property owners, and attract private funding. The neighborhood could also piggyback on government projects, including a planned 2009 reconstruction of Chicago Avenue and its infrastructure, Fields says. In addition, it could draw funds from Minneapolis’s Great Streets program for commercial development.
Could Elliot Park be on its way to becoming the city’s next hot ’hood? See you at the Band Box.
