Full park completion is expected in August
Provided by City of Minneapolis (Cover photo: Mayor Betsy Hodges thanking partners who made the Downtown Commons park possible. Photos courtesy of City of Minneapolis)
The Commons is now open to the public. The 4.2 acre green space is designed to serve as an everyday retreat for residents and workers and become a destination for visitors to the city. All of the heavy construction is finished at the eastern block of The Commons, which is bounded by Park Avenue, Portland Avenue, Fourth Street and Fifth Street. The west block is still under construction and expected to be completed in August.
The Commons is a key part of the broader, five-block Downtown East development project that has brought over $400 million of investment in new office towers for Wells Fargo, housing, retail, parking, and a hotel to an area that resisted development for decades. Hargreaves Associates, an internationally recognized landscape architecture firm, designed The Commons.
The Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District (DID) will operate The Commons through 2016. Green Minneapolis, a nonprofit public-private conservancy is working with the City on an operating agreement for 2017 and beyond. To date, Green Minneapolis has raised over 14 million in supporting the fundraising effort for The Commons. The City has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) to transfer fee title of the property to MPRB and lease it back and be responsible for its operations.
Donors to the green space thus far include Wells Fargo, Ryan Companies, The Minnesota Vikings, Valspar, U.S. Bank, The Pohlad Family Foundation, Julia Dayton, Jay and Page Cowles, The Edward J. Phillips Family Foundation, Piper Jaffray, CenturyLink, The David Wilson and Michael Peterman Family, Target Corporation, Carlson and the Carlson Family Foundation, Land O’Lakes, Thrivent Financial, Veit USA and Xcel Energy. More information is available at CommonsMpls.com.
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