Midtown Exchange

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The Midtown Exchange is the largest building in Minneapolis, Minnesota in terms of leasable space and is the second-largest building in the state, after the Mall of America in nearby Bloomington. It was built for Sears along Elliott Avenue and Lake Street in 1928 as a retail and mail-order catalog facility. It was expanded in 1929, 1964, and 1979, resulting in 1.2 million square feet (110,000 m²) of space. A central tower along Elliot Avenue rises 16 floors to 211 feet (64 m).

After Sears closed the site in 1994, it laid vacant as development proposals came and went. The city of Minneapolis acquired the site in 2001 and sold the 1979 expansion portion in 2002 to be used by the neighboring Abbott Northwestern Hospital as a parking ramp. Two years later, Ryan Companies was given exclusive development rights to the site. The resulting plan divided the structure into a mixed-use site with about 300 residential units, plus office and retail space. In 2004, Allina Hospitals & Clinics (which owns Abbott Northwestern among other area hospitals) announced plans to move their corporate headquarters to the building, taking up most of the allotted office space.^[1] Much of the residential space is known as the Chicago Lofts, named for the nearby Chicago Avenue. The building also includes the Midtown Global Market, which is home to a variety of small independently-owned restaurants, cafes, and specialty grocers.

A request has been filed with the United States National Park Service to add the building to the National Register of Historic Places.

1 Trivia
2 See also
3 External links
4 Notes and references

[edit] Trivia

Midtown Exchange has a sister building in Boston, Massachusetts called the Landmark Center. The two buildings were both built in the 1920's and their designs are nearly idential. Like Midtown Exchange, the Landmark Center is a former Sears warehouse which has since been renovated into commercial space. ^[2]