Midtown, Minneapolis

Midtown is a loosely-defined region in south Minneapolis, Minnesota. There are no hard-set boundaries to the midtown area, but it is generally agreed to include the area in the vicinity of Lake Street between Interstate 35W and Hiawatha Avenue. Lake Street is the border between the Phillips and Powderhorn communities of Minneapolis.

The midtown area was historically known as being somewhat of a run-down area. However, in the past decade or two, there has been a large revitalization effort along Lake Street, driven largely by an insurgence of new Latino and Northeast African businesses.

Near the Chicago and Lake intersection is the Midtown Exchange building, which was a Sears department store and mail-order catalog facility until the company closed it in 1994. After sitting vacant for a decade, the building was fully redeveloped. It features office space, residential units, and the Midtown Global Market, a large marketplace featuring an ethnically-diverse variety of restaurants, grocers, and retailers.

Other indoor markets that have opened in the midtown area include the Mercado Central (at Bloomington Ave and Lake St), which houses numerous Latino businesses, and the Lake Plaza (at 3rd Ave and Lake St), which houses Somali and Latino businesses. As of January 2009, a new market has opened in the former True Value Hardware site at the Hi-Lake Shopping Center (21st Ave and Lake St), housing Somali businesses.

At 22nd Ave and Lake Street (in the parking lot of Anishinabe Academy School) the Midtown Farmers' Market operates on Tuesdays and Saturdays from late spring to early autumn. This area will inevitably see further redevelopment due to its proximity to the Lake Street/Midtown LRT Station along the Hiawatha Line. Several parcels of land immediately adjacent to the light rail tracks, some completely vacant, are likely to be redeveloped in the near future.

Many places and groups use the "midtown" descriptor in their names. Examples include:

• The Midtown Greenway, a major bicycling and walking trail paralleling Lake Street
• The Midtown Exchange and the Midtown Global Market
• The Midtown Freewheel Bike Center, a bike shop on the Midtown Greenway with contract and daily bike parking, a coffee shop, and commuter-oriented amenities
• The Midtown YWCA (Lake Street and 22nd Ave)
• The Lake Street/Midtown light rail station on the Hiawatha Line
• The Sheraton Minneapolis Midtown Hotel
• The MIDTOWN Church, a church plant utilizing principles of self-organization and community development

External links

• Midtown Community Works
• Midtown Global Market
• Mercado Central
• Midtown Farmers' Market