Parking data from the city already shows a steady increase in traffic since the pandemic cleared cubicles.
“I kind of feel bad they have to come back to work,” said David Brauer, a fitness instructor at the downtown YMCA. “But I am glad for downtown.” (Shari L. Gross/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
For the first time in at least five years, the Tuesday after Labor Day won’t just signal back-to-school in the Twin Cities: It’s also back to the office for thousands of white-collar workers.
And for downtown Minneapolis boosters and business owners, at least, there’s no dread at seeing the end of that long summer vacation. Instead, it’s all relief.
“It’s like everybody’s been waiting with bated breath for this announcement,” said Brent Robertson, who leases downtown office buildings as Twin Cities market lead and managing director for JLL. “It’s just like throwing gas on the fire of the resurgence of downtown.”
Last week, Target made the call to require its largest business unit to report to the office three days a week starting in September. The retailer, downtown Minneapolis’ second-largest employer, joined the likes of Ameriprise, U.S. Bank and other area employers in issuing return-to-office mandates after many had embraced remote and hybrid work since 2020.
Their employees might already be groaning about traffic snarls and parking prices. But from Downtown Council President and CEO Adam Duininck to skyway restaurateurs, those who count on downtown’s rebound are counting down the days with excitement.
“I kind of feel bad they have to come back to work,” said David Brauer, a fitness instructor at the YMCA. “But I am glad for downtown.”
While more office workers clocking in from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. will undoubtedly boost downtown’s vibrancy, that comeback was already underway.
The number of people parking in city-owned ramps has trended up each year since the pandemic, according to data from the city of Minneapolis. Occupancy in the first half of 2025 was more than 75% of what it was in 2019, when the city had nearly 1,000 more available spots.
So far this year, Duininck said the number of people commuting downtown has continued to grow at a slow-and-steady pace. And he suspects longer in-office requirements — like Ameriprise bumping its policy up from three days a week to four starting in September — might eventually become the norm.
“You want downtown Minneapolis to be the economic engine where the jobs are located,” Duininck said, noting a robust office population is a key third — alongside entertainment and residential — of local leaders’ vision for a mixed-use downtown. “That sort of economic activity is what helps to fund everything we do here, from our schools to government services, all of it.”
Yet for anyone who experienced downtown Minneapolis in recent years and compared it to its pre-pandemic atmosphere, the area felt more “completely dead” than like a thriving business hub.
That’s according to Bryant Gallarzo, who works at Freshii in Gaviidae Common and has witnessed many a somber Monday. Yet on that day this week, the skyways in that corner buzzed with business casual-clad people.
Justin Bedford, the owner of Cardigan Donuts, attested to that. He said that while June usually brings a seasonal dip, it hasn’t been so stark this year, particularly when even more workers are in the office Tuesday through Thursday.
So he can’t wait for September, because pre-pandemic, Target employees made up 40% of the customers at his shop’s original location in the City Center skyway.
In 2021, the company moved out of the nearly 1 million square feet it leased in that building. Most remains vacant despite attempts to find subletters, and Target’s lease doesn’t expire until the end of 2031.
“It was a big shock not only when the pandemic happened,” Bedford said, “but when Target signaled that they would keep their work situation indefinite, we were wondering what was going to happen with our customers.”
Despite losing nearly half of its customer base, Cardigan has managed to grow. After opening the City Center spot in 2017, Bedford bet on a second downtown location in neighboring IDS Center in 2022. A third skyway shop should open this fall in U.S. Bank Plaza.
Gallarzo’s parents own Planet Smoothie in Gaviidae, which opened in January 2020 just weeks before office towers emptied. But he agreed business has been turning around in recent months, with Planet Smoothie posting “really great numbers.”
The Douglas Dayton YMCA was mostly quiet around lunchtime Monday, with a few dozen people working out on treadmills and ellipticals. But Jessica Wittwer, the facility’s operations director, said the Y has seen a boost in daily check-ins, especially midweek. She’s excited to see how Target’s return will increase that even more.
“The people who are coming over from there are our tried-and-true people who have had Y memberships for a really long-standing time,” she said. “So we are really hoping that call back to work brings more of them.”
![The Nicollet Mall Target store. Target announced Gregg Steinhafel’s departure as chairman, president and chief executive officer. ] Monday, May 5, 2014 GLEN STUBBE * gstubbe@startribune.com](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/CEX2MTOIAFISMO4LE6DE7IZZCQ.jpg?&w=1080)
The Nicollet Mall Target store in downtown Minneapolis. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Fitness instructor Brauer teaches Monday and Wednesday afternoon group power classes at the Y, something he did before the pandemic, too. He said most of the 20 to 30 people in his classes pre-pandemic worked at Target. When in-person classes resumed in late 2021, Brauer described the downtown gym as a “zombie apocalypse.” By 2023, his classes still drew fewer than 10 people.
Office vacancy rates have been hovering near record highs for the past couple years across the metro, but there are signs return-to-work mandates are putting a dent in those figures.
JLL said that in the second quarter of this year the metro saw meaningful positive absorption — meaning tenants leased more space than they vacated — for the first time since 2020.
The average vacancy rate across the metro remained stable last quarter, according to brokerage CBRE, in part because there’s been a decline in the amount of office space being vacated by tenants before the end of the lease.
The group said about a fifth of all suburban offices were vacant during the second quarter compared with a nearly 30% downtown vacancy rate.
The gains come as a growing number of companies sign new leases. Those haven’t made a significant impact on the vacancy rate yet because so many are still on the hunt for smaller, higher-quality space.
Brokers said progress will happen slowly, in part because there are still several companies like Target with large chunks of empty space. At the end of June, downtown Minneapolis’ central business district accounted for more than half of all available sublease space in the metro, with the offices Target vacated in City Center representing about a quarter of what’s available metro-wide, according to commercial real estate brokerage Colliers.
Robertson, of JLL, said despite the growing number of employers calling workers back to their cubicles, the pandemic still left downtown with “an abundance of commercial office product that’s irrelevant.”
“To enhance the vitality of our [central business district], something needs to be done with these assets,” he said.
Duininck said to attract the funding needed for that work, Minneapolis will have to convince people “it’s safe and economically viable to invest here.”
“We can’t fall prey to bad policy discussions around rent control or taxing businesses or taxing people’s income at a city level,” he said. “When the City Council has those types of conversations, it hurts our image and our ability to attract that kind of investment. It hurts our reputation as the economic engine for the city and the region and the state.
“I do think that we do have to keep providing jobs here and a place for business to be successful,” he added. “That’s been part of the secret sauce of our city.”