Nicollet Island / East Bank

The 47-acre island and the adjacent East Hennepin commercial district offer a little bit of everything: the very old and the brand new, commercial failures and market successes, detached houses and housing in towers, restored historic buildings and lasting historic institutions (including a Polka bar), and a developing public landscape along the riverfront.

Nicollet Island, named after an early 19th-century French scientist-explorer, is now completely changed from its historic role as an industrial area with a smattering of low-rent worker's houses. Splendidly refurbished, these late-19th-century houses, located on the island's north end, are now home to some of the city's elite. Industrial uses on the south end have been removed in favor of an expansive city park. In between are De La Salle High School, which has occupied its site for more than a century, the boutique Nicollet Island Inn, and the restored Grove Street Flats, the architectural star of the island. Unsurprisingly, the district's median family income also changed radically, from well below the citywide average before all these changes, to way above today.

Riverplace, a failed 1980s festival marketplace is located on the East Bank, just across a narrow channel of the Mississippi. Its residential towers formed a critical mass of housing for the recently built apartments and townhouses centered around First Avenue NE and 2nd Street NE. The festival program, which bombed in most U.S. cities, has been succeeded by an eclectic mixture of offices, retail, and restaurants, which merge almost seamlessly into the Main Place development east of Central Avenue. Other than the placid residential precinct on the north tip of Nicollet Island, this area is pretty active, with substantial traffic on the major streets. But it is also well served by multiple bus lines, and convenient to both Downtown and the University.

Contact the Asbury Group, for Nicollet Island / East Bank real estate help

  1. Calumet Lofts
  2. Cobalt Condominiums
  3. Durkee Atwood Lofts
  4. Falls Pinnacle
  5. The Archive
  6. Village at St. Anthony Falls

St. Anthony West

St. Anthony West is among the oldest Minneapolis neighborhoods, laid out in 1849 as part of the town of St. Anthony. Because treaties then forbade European settlement west of the Mississippi, St. Anthony initially occupied the extreme fringe of legal American expansion. Due to its age, and the typically impermanent nature of frontier and pioneer construction, St. Anthony has effectively been rebuilt several times since its birth, most recently through urban revitalization programs in the 1960s. As a result, much if not most of the housing in St. Antony West is fully modern and up-to-code, despite its early history.

This is a traditional Midwestern workingman's neighborhood, made up largely of modest houses set on small lots. It is defined by a busy street, Broadway, on the north, and bisected by another busy street, University Avenue. The neighborhood's northwest corner is given over to long-time commercial-industrial uses, while most of the rest is occupied by lower density residential. Boom Island Park along the Mississippi River is St. Anthony West's signature feature; it was gradually expanded over the years to its impressive present state.

St. Anthony West offers a comfortable, small-scale atmosphere within walking distance of Downtown, with good bus service elsewhere, especially to the University. Compared to many other Minneapolis neighborhoods, particularly to those located close to Downtown, St. Anthony West offers both convenience and value.

Contact the Asbury Group, for St. Anthony West real estate help

  1. Cobalt Condominiums
  2. La Rive
  3. The Archive
  4. The Calumet
  5. The Falls Pinnacle
  6. Village of St. Anthony Falls

Marcy Holmes

Set deep within the larger, official Marcy-Holmes neighborhood defined by planners is an actual neighborhood, best experienced by a leisurely walk along 5th Street SE between 4th and 8th avenues to appreciate the post-civil-war houses, especially the Italianate Fisk House at 424 5th Street.

Outside of this authentic and appealing community core, any traditional neighborhood feeling is pretty much overwhelmed elsewhere in Marcy-Holmes by commercial and industrial uses, the massive intrusion of I-35W (even if depressed below grade), the eternally funky Dinkytown, an increasing preponderance of student-rental housing closer to the campus, and, of course, by the sheer presence of University itself.

Recent development along the riverfront is establishing another Marcy-Holmes residential community, albeit of an entirely different character from the small-scale, 19th-century neighborhood on the other side of Fourth Street SE. Well more than a thousand new housing units are under development or already open near the historic mill buildings lined up along SE Main Street, east of Main Place. Built within the Saint Anthony Falls Historic District, this setting is to be visually defined by the landmark Pillsbury "A" Mill at 3rd Avenue SE. The housing will be available in a range of plans and prices, and of course is attractive for the marvelous Downtown skyline view across the river, abundant public green space along Main Street, and a convenient location between the University and Downtown.

Contact the Asbury Group, for Marcy Holmes real estate help

  1. Flour Sack Flats
  2. Phoenix On The River
  3. Winslow House