Why Downtown Minneapolis? Here Are Some Fast Facts.
Why downtown? It’s all in the numbers.
Key Facts
demographics and population
43,456 downtown residents
36.2 percent increase (11,552) in population since 2006
160,000 employees work daily downtown
tourism in 2017
575,000 convention attendees
1,986,573 hotel room nights occupied
19 million leisure and business visitors
934 new hotel rooms added
transportation
81.9 million rides on Metro Transit in 2017
13.1 million rides on Green Line Light Rail last year (441,000 more rides than 2016)
10.6 million rides on Blue Line Light Rail last year (408,000 more rides than 2016)
55.7 million rides on bus routes last year
793,796 rides on North Star Commuter Rail last year
New light rail extensions (Blue Line to Brooklyn Park, Green Line to Eden Prairie) and Bus Rapid Transit (Orange Line to Lakeville) in the works
economic development
459,188 square feet of Class A office space absorbed
6th straight year Minneapolis topped $1 billion worth of new construction permits
36.2 percent of Mpls-St. Paul’s office space resides in downtown’s central business district
top 15 downtown employers
1. Target (8,333 employees)
2. Hennepin County Medical Center (7,105)
3. Wells Fargo (7,000)
4. Hennepin County (6,595)
5. Ameriprise Finanical (4,893)
6. U.S. Bank (4,651)
7. Xcel Energy (2,351)
8. City of Minneapolis (2,060)
9. RBC Wealth Management (1,475)
10. Thrivent Financial (1,352)
11. Capella Education (1,258)
12. Star Tribune (1,096)
13. SPS Commerce (1,002)
14. Federal Reserve Bank (970)
15. ABM (910)
Who's moving downtown?
Approximately 70 businesses have moved their headquarters, consolidated staff or opened up an office location downtown since 2011. Businesses who recently chose to move to downtown Minneapolis include:
Aimia, Amazon, Amplifon, Assemble, Be The Match, CBRE, CH Robinson, ECMC, Eide Bailly, FLM+/Land O'Lakes, Industrious, Mayo Clinic, Pandora, Prime Digital Academy, Sezzle, Sleep Number, Tecmark, Weber Shandwick, WeWork, YA and more.
Where are they coming from?
Where tenants are relocating from to downtown (2013-2017)
- Out of State: 29%
- I-494: 22.6%
- I-394: 20.7%
- Suburban St. Paul: 9.7%
- St. Paul CBD: 8.1%
- BEA: 3.2%
- Northwest: 1.6%
- International: 1.6%
Pitching a move downtown? We can help.
Want to learn more about downtown or help inform a prospective company about why doing business here makes sense? View this PDF presentation that focuses on downtown business development and recruitment. If you would like the PowerPoint for an on-site presentation or would like members of the mpls downtown council's 2025 Plan Development Committee to meet with your team to discuss a move downtown, email us at info@mplsdowntown.com.
