Retek on the Mall in Downtown Minneapolis Is Full Months Before Opening

MINNEAPOLIS-After a bitter fight with its crosstown rival Opus over the site and a controversial subsidy for its anchor retail tenant, Ryan Cos. plans to open its new 645,000-sf office-retail complex in DowntownMinneapolis this fall. Perhaps more impressive is that the mixed use project already is completely pre-leased, with its anchor office tenant, retail software company Retek, and its anchor retail tenant, Target, among the prominent occupants, says Collin Barr, vice president for Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos.

The office-retail tower will be called Retek on the Mall, while Target will retain its own name on its storefront. Retek is taking 172,000 sf, with an option to expand into an additional 80,000 sf within a yearor so. Ryan Cos. will move its headquarters into the third floor, which totals 72,000 sf. Given that the project is next to Target Plaza, a 1.8-million sf headquarters complex for the Minneapolis-based retailer that is nearing completion, Target vendors were more than eager to fill out the building, Barr notes.

The city provided a heavy subsidy for the project, in part to lure Target to build a store in DowntownMinneapolis, which does not have much in the way of value retailing. Critics objected that the publicshould not be subsidizing a multi-billion corporation like Minneapolis-based Target Corp., but proponentssuccessfully argued that the project was important to the health of the Downtown.