Downtown living in Minneapolis
Neal Gendler, Star Tribune
March 20, 2004

Growing numbers of people not ready for the mow-and-shovel lifestyle -- or fleeing from it -- have made the idea of living downtown increasingly trendy.

But there's living downtown and there's living in downtown.

Most downtown Minneapolis homeowners actually own condominiums near downtown's edges, mostly on the northwest side -- in the Warehouse District or near the river -- or the south side, from Loring Park to Portland Avenue, where buyers have snapped up units in the Grant Park project still under construction at 10th Street.

But starting in May, a handful of homeowners will be able to look out their windows at the Wells Fargo skyscraper and the Rand Tower -- right across the street. They'll be able to sip Chardonnay on decks or balconies while looking up into the city's skyscrapers or down into one of downtown's central intersections.

Can living get any more downtown?

Not to Larry Abdo, whose Anxon company is creating Six Quebec, a 21-unit condominium project at the corner of Marquette Av. and S. 6th St. in a 1948 building that once housed Minnesota Federal Savings and Loan. Nor to future resident Damian Novak, who put money down on a 950-square-foot unit last August.

"It's a really neat location," Novak said. "There are no others downtown like that. It seemed like a property that had a lot of value for its price." Novak bought one of the bargain units: $190,000 for a one-bedroom condo without a deck or scenery; his view is the wall of another building, and he joked, "The curtain will always be down." But it's still a good deal, he said. "I've never really gone through the skyway system, but now I'll be two skyways over from the IDS [building] and there's just an endless supply of stores and restaurants" an easy walk from home.

Other units are bigger, most with decks or balconies, and those remaining range from $347,000 to $850,000-plus, said Coldwell Banker Burnet agent Bruce Birkeland, who's co-listing them with CB Burnet agent David Tonneson.

The entire building is about 80,000 square feet, Abdo said, and because of its wedding-cake design, floors seven, eight and nine are small. He's building a unit for himself on those floors, and a prime fourth-floor unit, about to open as the model, will be home to Abdo's son Paul, who works for his father. The unit has a 400-square-foot deck off the living room, across the street from the Wells Fargo tower.

Skyway users will recognize the newly named Six Quebec immediately; its skyway connection, which was closed from mid-January until March 8, features exposed columns painted red and an artistic glass "floating cloud" on the ceiling where skyways from the Northstar Center, the Rand Tower and Wells Fargo intersect.

The project is the first in a mixed-use building by Anxon, a 14-year-old company that started doing "tenant improvement in building out offices and restaurants," Larry Abdo said. Anxon now focuses on development and construction management for such clients as Walgreens and Family Dollar stores.

A different vision

The former office building at 601 Marquette Av. S. was empty when Anxon bought it for $3 million in 2002, he said. Under the old owner, some tenants had left, but they could not be replaced without bringing their spaces up to code for fire safety and other matters. Doing so piecemeal was not economic in a high-vacancy office market, Abdo said. At least three other companies considered the building, he said, but none envisioned it as condominiums. He said he saw the wedding-cake design as an opportunity to create heart-of-downtown decks. "We optioned it on Valentine's Day of 2002. We closed on it on Halloween of 2002," Abdo said. "I like holidays; I'm a romantic." Reconstruction began Jan. 2, 2003.

"We redid everything except the exterior walls and the windows," he said. "We've redone all of the mechanical, all of the electrical, all of the plumbing, all of the roofs, both elevators. We completely redid the skyway," enlarging the corridor.

Subtracting "Villa Marie," as he calls his own three-floor unit, the building has four floors for homes. "The first floor is completely redone," Abdo said. "We've created a very comfortable first-level entrance that feels like a high-end residence. We made the entry glass three times bigger than it was before. We added chandeliers and a four-color tile scheme." The broad lobby can't be entered except by key, Paul Abdo said, but it can be exited by people coming down from the skyway level.

At the back of the lobby is a key-only entrance for residents, who have their own elevator, and a mailroom with lockers so delivery people can store goods and residents can hang a coat to grab on their way out. The rest of the first floor is planned for businesses but hasn't been leased yet.

The perked-up skyway level, with all-glass storefronts, has been an easier sell and already has its first open business, Amy's Candy. Leases also are signed with Dunn Bros. coffee; Quiznos submarine sandwiches; Zen Box, a Japanese eatery; My Burgers, and Taco John's, he said. The building has no parking, but Anxon has a contract for 25 spaces in a connected ramp at $180 a month.

'Edgy' design

Abdo said said the project features an "edgy" design by Hay Dobbs, an architecture firm in the Foshay Tower. The result is a loft look of unfinished ceilings revealing ductwork, and interior walls at angles. Abdo said young people are moving into downtown Minneapolis. "We built a building that was designed by that age group," he said. "My son's 25; the architect group is under 30. I'm the old man on the deal [he's 57], and I let them go with it."

About half the units are sold, most to college-graduate single men between 25 and 35 who work downtown, he said. With low interest rates, low down payments and what begin as interest-only loans, "we provide a fully finished unit at $550,000, and you put up a total of 10 grand and you get a nice home."

Novak is an MBA student at the University of St. Thomas' downtown Minneapolis campus. A 2000 electrical engineering graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he'd worked for a small venture-capital firm in California, where he had a home to sell. Novak, who has been living at the Calhoun Beach Club, learned of Six Quebec from an Anxon employee friend from their youth in Hastings. He'd looked at other downtown-area condos, including Grant Park at 10th St. and Portland Av. S., and some across the Mississippi River, where he thought prices were a bit high.

He said he decided to buy after seeing sketches and a list of what's included. "The standard package is really nice," he said. "They have a good sense of the style I like; I like a more contemporary layout. ... Grant Park had a different feel -- it was more traditional."

He expects to move in this May.

Other buyers express similar opinions, Larry Abdo said. Besides the no-maintenance lifestyle, they're attracted to the location. "For those who work downtown and consequently play downtown, that is significant," he said. Another attraction is the "magnetic outside space; you go up to the model unit on the fourth floor and you walk out on this 400-square-foot deck, and you are downtown. Everyone, buyer or not, says this is really cool."

Abdo likened the daytime effect to that of a New York hotel where you can open a window and feel the energy.

"This building is all about ambience and lifestyle ... very chic in its finish," Birkeland said. "It's going to have a distinct, high-level characteristic to it -- post-industrial loft style capitalizing on the unique tiering of the building." He said the setting gives a unique indoor-outdoor relationship. "When you walk out of that building, you'll feel like you're in New York because the street is right there."

At night, the feeling changes and "you get this light parade that twinkles off these buildings," he said. "In the other [downtown-area] projects, which are fabulous, you feel like you're looking at a postcard," Birkeland said. "Here, you're in the postcard." So far, Abdo apparently has the heart-of-downtown market to himself in Minneapolis, although industry sources hint that might not last.

Downtown condos are old news in St. Paul, where more than half a dozen projects are occupied or being finished. But the ambience is different: The tall buildings are less concentrated, the streets are quieter and the businesses fewer.

Work in progress

Larry Abdo said work is focused now on completing the model unit and the last details of the first-floor entrance and the skyway. Work also has begun on steel for Villa Marie's four-color glass façade. "All three floors total 2,800 square feet," he said. "It also will have a very large outside deck, an outside balcony and a gourmet kitchen; we both like to cook." He said because of the complexity, the unit won't be ready until July. "I think we'll have all of our units sold by fall, and if we're lucky enough to do that, it'll all be built out by Christmas, because that's what people want." Abdo is confident that enough people will consider their location an asset.

"It's an asset if you want to live downtown,' he said. "It's an asset if you want to drive your car once a month, it's an asset if you want to go back and forth to work [close and indoors], it's an asset if you want to walk to Morton's and walk home without worrying about driving anything. It's a liability if you want a suburban life."

He said he's certain the area's residential population will keep increasing, changing the face and feel of downtown. "In three years, downtown Minneapolis will be 35 percent different," he predicted. "We'll have 2,000 more residents who are in or close to downtown, and that will drive businesses we haven't seen here in decades" -- a grocery, possibly a meat market, and services such as dog-walkers.

He also predicted more restaurants serving breakfast, another independent clothing store and more night spots.

Axnon's office is almost straight behind Six Quebec, at 608 2nd Av. S., in the Northstar Center. "This is our town," he said. "We were born and raised here. We're not looking at some misconceived 'opportunity.' This is something that doesn't have even a shudder of trepidation to it. ... Our market is not a global market, but there are enough people who want to live here that this will work."