Midtown, Minneapolis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Midtown is a commercial district in south Minneapolis. It stretches along East Lake Street from Interstate 35W in the west to Hiawatha Avenue in the east, lying along the border between the Phillips and Powderhorn communities. This stretch was pretty crime-ridden for a long time, but has been revitalized by Latino and East 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. The building sat vacant for a decade, but now includes office space, residential units, and the Midtown Global Market, featuring an ethnically-diverse variety of resaurants and grocers. Other indoor markets had also previously popped up in the area, including Mercado Central at Bloomington and Lake, housing numerous Latino businesses, and Lake Plaza at 3rd and Lake, housing mostly Somali businesses. There is less activity at the eastern end of the district, but at 22nd and Lake (in the parking lot of Anishinabe Academy School) there is the Midtown Public Market, an outdoor farmers market operating on Tuesdays and Saturdays from late spring to early autumn. This area will also likely see further redevelopment due to its proximity to the Lake Street/Midtown LRT Station along the Hiawatha Line.
