Is Urban Outfitters out in Uptown?
The property at 3006 Hennepin Avenue South across from Calhoun Square in south Minneapolis is listed for lease by Cushman & Wakefield Minneapolis-St. Paul. The listing does not indicate when the space is available and characterizes the lease rate as “negotiable.”
The listing is posted on the web site of the Minnesota Commercial Association of Real Estate/Realtors (MNCAR).
Cushman & Wakefield brokers Ned Rukavina and Kim Meyer are handling the listing. Neither returned phone calls seeking comment. A Cushman & Wakefield Minneapolis-St. Paul spokesman declined comment on the listing. Hennepin County property tax records indicate that the building, which dates to 1916, is owned by Excelsior-based JPM Properties LLC.
Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters Inc. did not respond to emails seeking comment. Urban Outfitters has one other metro location at the Mall of America.
“We’d heard it was coming,” said John Johannson, a veteran retail broker, of the listing.
“Uptown is not a market that’s highly sought after at this time. It’s not an active play for a lot of retailers,” said Johannson, senior VP with the Twin Cities office of Toronto-based Colliers International.
Urban Outfitters Inc., which owns other brands such as Anthropologie, reported revenue of $3.95 billion for its fiscal 2019, which ended on January 31. The company’s most recent quarterly financial filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicates that company projects to open eight new Urban Outfitters stores and close four locations in its fiscal 2020.
Uptown has been hit with a series of departures by national retailers. Victoria’s Secret closed in January 2018 after 10 years in business at the southwest corner of Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue. Nearly two years later, the space is still empty.
The North Face and Columbia Sportswear both closed Uptown locations in January 2019.
Most Uptown retailers are rankled that the city of Minneapolis eliminated street parking on Hennepin Avenue between Lake Street and 31st Avenue. Calhoun Square is on the east side of that block; Urban Outfitters is on the west side of the block, as were Victoria’s Secret, North Face and Columbia Sportswear.
Across the street from Urban Outfitters, the long-troubled Calhoun Square mall once again has new owners. Chicago-based Northpond Partners acquired the property about a month ago for $34.5 million. The group’s specific plans for the urban retail property are not yet clear.