St. Anthony Main and the Industrial East Bank
Today, "St. Anthony Main" describes a collection of restored-renovated historic industrial buildings extending along Southeast Main Street between the Third Avenue Bridge and the historic Pillsbury "A" Mill complex. The actual St. Anthony Main retail development dates from the late 1970s, centered on the building at 201 Main Street SE, and expanded west across 2nd Avenue SE. The later Riverplace festival marketplace picked up on the west side of the Third Avenue Bridge-Central Avenue. Because uses and tenants have changed almost continuously since the openings of both developments, the overall feeling is by now pleasantly disjointed: especially the St. Anthony Main area has assumed an agreeably funky character that is comfortably attractive to both tourists and on-site office workers.
Interest in the East Bank riverfront dates from the early 1970s, when architect Peter Nelson Hall converted the upper floors of the 1890 Pracna Building at 117 Main Street SE as his residence. This seemingly insignificant personal action literally shocked many Minneapolitans, who had thought of the industrial East Bank—if they thought of it at all—as a derelict area, surely not suitable for housing! In that context, the subsequent proliferation of expensive lofts along both sides of the industrial riverfront ranks among the most radical changes in values in Minneapolis history.
Hall was not through with his visionary demonstration: he soon opened a bar-restaurant on the ground floor, Pracna on Main, which immediately became a hot destination, in part because Main Street seemed somehow off-limits, despite its spectacular riverside setting, with direct views of the downtown skyline.
It did not take long for the Minneapolis establishment to understand what Hall was trying to demonstrate. That inspired the Zelle family, long successful in business and prominent in the Minneapolis Symphony/Minnesota Orchestral Association, to undertake a large-scale restoration-redevelopment: St. Anthony Main. They hired Larry Nelson, who had run a popular local version of Crate and Barrel at 118 East 26th Street, to oversee specialty retail that was then virtually absent outside of cities like Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Over the ensuing three decades, the East Bank has experienced hundreds of millions of dollars in private and public investment, and is by now virtually unrecognizable from its forlorn state when Peter Hall first recognized the district's potentials. Although you can still enjoy a sandwich and drink at Pracna on Main.
