Minneapolis City Center (or simply City Center) is an indoor shopping mall located in Downtown West, Minneapolis between Hennepin Avenue and Nicollet Mall, and 6th and 7th Streets. The three-story retail atrium adjoins the 33 South Sixth office skyscraper, Minneapolis Marriott City Center hotel, and a seven-story parking garage. The complex also contains six connections to the Minneapolis Skyway System, the most of any city building. City Center was first announced in 1975, with a search for developers beginning that August, and demolition of the site's previous structures beginning in 1979. The mall opened in August 1983, and was preceded by the grand opening of Donaldson's new flagship department store, inside the center, approximately one year prior. Overall, City Center contains of leasable retail and office space.
City Center was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and features elements of both modern and brutalist architecture. The exterior facade, in particular, received criticism for its gray, drab design. A series of renovations to the mall have occurred, with the first one being in 1993, which redistributed tenant spaces within the former Donaldson's store and improved the overall walkability. Later projects further adjusted the layout of the mall several times. Many stores have leased space at City Center throughout the years, including Allen Edmonds, Bath & Body Works, Brooks Brothers, Sam Goody, and Victoria's Secret.
Following the 2004 renovation which converted its third floor into office space, and removed its food court entirely, the remaining retail space maintained occupancy rates between 60-70 percent annually. The mall was last anchored by Saks Off 5th and Marshalls, which closed in 2021 and 2023, respectively. Other former anchors include Carson Pirie Scott, Donaldson's, Filene's Basement, Montgomery Ward, Office Depot, and Sports Authority. The center currently features few retailers and several restaurants, including Cardigan Donuts, Fogo de Chão, Leeann Chin, Tom's Watch Bar, and the UPS Store.
Site City Center was constructed within an oversized city block in downtown Minneapolis, between Hennepin Avenue and Nicollet Mall, and 6th and 7th Streets. The site had a history of housing retail and hospitality operations, previously serving the Hotel Dyckman since 1910, an upscale French restaurant named Chateau de Paris, the Minneapolis Merchandise Mart, and numerous other shops. The project was formally announced in January 1975 as City Center '75, one of several proposals for new construction in Minneapolis. City Center was the largest building proposed at the time, and was billed as an attempt to stabilize and maintain economic redevelopment in the city's downtown core. Specifically, Minneapolis hoped to welcome two new department stores, construct two office towers, and expand the adjacent Radisson Hotel across the street. Approximately US$145 million was set aside for the redevelopment, with $38 million coming from city assistance in order to obtain property rights for the city block. Critics felt the project was risky for city taxpayers, given the development's projected costs. Nearly $3 million was used for relocation efforts, as a total of 69 existing businesses were removed from the site prior to construction.
The Forum Cafeteria, another structure within the block, unrelatedly closed its doors during construction negotiations in August 1975, citing declining sales; during a period of setbacks for the City Center project, Minneapolis Tribune editor Charles W. Bailey questioned if another restaurant would attempt to open in its place, given the historic nature of the space, before further decisions were made regarding the development's construction. Ultimately, a nightclub named Scottie's on Seventh opened in its space before deconstruction. Some locals questioned whether or not the downtown Nankin Cafe would be demolished for City Center; this was ultimately decided in March 1980 when project officials announced a new location would be a part of the mall, separated from a new location for Scottie's on Seventh by the parking garage.
Barbara Flanagan from the Minneapolis Tribune opined that City Center would flourish if its designers preserved the best historic features of the site, suggesting that similar decisions made in downtown Saint Paul prevented economic success. When plans for City Center were approved by city officials, Hotel Dyckman was the state's first structure set to be demolished by implosion, which occurred on November 19, 1979. The Merchandise Mart was set to be the only structure saved to make way for City Center, and was considered a holdout in 1978, possibly due to its existing skyway connection to the Radisson Hotel. Others felt the Merchandise Mart, which was built in the 1960s, was too new of a structure to be demolished. Flanagan questioned why more was not done to save the Forum Cafeteria structure instead.
Architecture and layout In August 1975, scouting for the project began, with a group of ten Minneapolis council representatives visiting several North American cities to gather potential developers, ultimately choosing three. Precedent structures developed by the three groups were Pennzoil Place in Houston, Tower Place in Atlanta, and Edmonton Centre in Edmonton. Prior to the winning project proposal, an iteration made in 1973 suggested two octagonal office towers suspended on stilts, directly adjacent to a retail center, a new structure to house Donaldson's, and a significantly larger parking garage facing Hennepin. The developed plan encompassed and featured designs on an additional city block between Nicollet Mall and Marquette Avenue, and 6th and 7th Streets, which was ultimately reserved for the construction of Gaviidae Common and Wells Fargo Center. Oxford Development Properties was chosen as the developer for City Center, which transitioned to BCE Development Properties Inc. during its construction.
Exterior
Minneapolis City Center features elements of modern and brutalist architecture. According to MinnPosts Nick Magrino, the center's brutalist exterior appearance is similar to that of the nearby Riverside Plaza apartment complex. Its facade has received criticism over the years, with Neal St. Anthony from Star Tribune noting how locals once referred to the structure as "the Alamo" due to its gray exterior. Linda Mack wrote in a 1993 article, in the same publication, covering the mall's first renovation, which she considered an improvement: "When City Center opened in 1983, it made an architectural thud so loud it reverberated for years. Its gray precast concrete shell and lifeless interior [...] disappointed Minneapolitans." Adding, Nelson said City Center along with its sibling structure Town Square were among Skidmore, Owings and Merrill's low points in architectural design. David Sternberg, president of Brookfield Properties, once admitted that while the property is not particularly attractive from the exterior, it is "premier space" in Minneapolis.
The City Center complex also serves as a major hub for the Minneapolis Skyway System, providing six connections, the most of any Minneapolis building. It connects to 50 South Sixth, the Dayton's flagship store, Gaviidae Common, Mayo Clinic Square, the Plymouth Building, and PwC Plaza. A staircase spanning the street to the skyway connecting City Center to Gaviidae Common, in addition to an identical one located one block south, was proposed in 2014 by American landscape architect James Corner, who the city chose to assist in redesigning Nicollet Mall. Janet Moore from Star Tribune wrote how the success of City Center's design depends on its surroundings, particularly its western side facing Hennepin Avenue, noting that the mall was busier when Carson Pirie Scott was an anchor and the adjacent Block E property served more of a purpose.
In June 2018, an unidentified foreign buyer purchased City Center and the adjoining 33 South Sixth skyscraper for US$320 million, establishing a record-breaking sale for office-designated buildings in Minnesota. Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies serves as the new manager of the retail complex according to city documents, and upon the news, they announced plans to renovate the mall in order to provide better circulation towards Nicollet Mall. On August 1, 2019, the US$3 million renovation began on the mall's eastern facade, beginning with the removal process of several precast concrete panels. One of the new corner entrances to the building, reopened in September 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The refurbished entrance was described as "definitely an upgrade" to City Center by Star Tribunes Neal St. Anthony. The same project, however, was described as "a desperate move [...] to slow the decline of the retail population at City Center, which has been on a very steady decline", according to Brian Lipson, the Principal at the management company that owns the nearby Andrus property.
Interior City Center contains about of leasable retail space spread across four floors. Accessible via a set of escalators in the third floor food court was an upper level mezzanine with two additional retail spaces. Via a set of elevators near Hennepin Avenue is a seven-story parking garage with 687 spaces for employees of the building and the adjacent 33 South Sixth. Bill Cannan Design, with Oxford Properties, fronted the graphic design efforts for the mall, producing backlit signs, displays, promotional items, and directories.
The interior circulation and layout of City Center have changed many times following its several renovations. In 1989, due to feedback collected from shoppers of the mall, a new set of escalators was installed connecting the second floor back hallway to its third floor food court. Pedestrian traffic prior to the installation tended to head through the Carson Pirie Scott department store, instead of the secondary corridor. Brookfield Development said the addition was to improve circulation through the skyways connecting the Radisson Hotel and Plymouth Building to the structure, as the food court was placed on third floor to direct circulation towards it. City Center's first interior renovation occurred in 1993, and was performed by the city's architectural firms Alliance Architects and Shea Design. The project improved the mall's window visibility towards Nicollet Mall, and added banners, lighting and awnings to tenant storefronts and at the third floor food court entrances. The redesign opened up the southern half of the former Carson Pirie Scott, and added an atrium that allowed Montgomery Ward customers to look below into Filene's Basement. Other parts of the former Carson Pirie Scott store were transformed into smaller retail spaces along two new corridors. Mack found these changes to improve the mall's walkability. In 2003, Sternberg announced that the group would renovate City Center, and convert the remaining third floor retail space into office tenants. Existing retail tenants were consolidated to the mall's first two floors, and the food court stalls were removed.
Scottie's on Seventh space