Picture this block a decade ago — mostly industrial, printing plants, warehouses, and parking for the Farmers Market that has run here since 1876. Today the North Loop is one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in Minneapolis, a walkable grid of converted brick warehouses now containing the city's best independent restaurants, coffee roasters, cocktail bars, and boutique hotels. The transformation happened fast.
The opening of Target Field in 2010 was a catalyst, bringing foot traffic and investment to what had been a dead zone between downtown and the rail yards. Minneapolis's downtown residential population has grown significantly in the last fifteen years, and the North Loop is where most of that growth has concentrated. The Farmers Market itself still operates on Lyndale Avenue North on weekends from May through October, one of the largest open-air markets in the Upper Midwest, with vendors selling produce, flowers, honey, and baked goods.
Minneapolis winters are long and hard, and the summer and fall markets draw enormous crowds of people who have been waiting all year for tomatoes and sweet corn grown within fifty miles of this spot.