Loring Park- Great Inner City Minneapolis Neighborhood with Excellent Access to Park Space

Loring Park was established in 1883 after the passage of the Park Act, which first created the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. The neighborhood filled in shortly afterwards with most of the neighborhood built out by the early 20th century. Loring Park received a significant amount of urban renewal and rebuilding of its fabric thanks to the passage of the 1972 Loring Park Development  increment financing district. While this removed a lot of historic mixed-use buildings and retail spaces, it increased the neighborhood’s residential density and created some additional office and hotel uses.  Current day Loring Park is a real hodge podge of old and newer uses and the population has been increasing since the 1970s and has doubled in last 50 years.

Loring Park has great access to Downtown and is one of Minneapolis’ most walkable districts. Loring Park and Loring Greenway give residents excellent access to green space and the District also hosts a great array of cultural amenities. For Loring Park to be a top tier urban district  it needs more retail amenities within its boundaries. To achieve this retail space needs to be intentionally created to counter act the legacy of the neighborhood’s urban renewal efforts which created mostly single use buildings. 

Click here to view my Loring Park Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Solid urban density.
* Excellent public transit access and bike access as well. Overall a very walkable neighborhood.
* Great racial and economic diversity.
* Lots of rental options including a good array of price points. Plenty of studios leasing anywhere btwn $700-1.7K, 1-beds btwn $900-1.8K, 2-beds btwn 1K-2.2K. Only a handful of 3-beds. Decent number of affordable housing as well.
* Good condo options with most 1-beds selling btwn 100K-300K and some luxury condos selling around 600K. Lots of 2-bed condos ranging anywhere from 150K-800K.  Good amount of 3-beds selling btwn 150K-600K. Really no 4-beds.
* Excellent park amenities starting with the spectacular Historic Loring Park with diverse amenities. Loring Greenway branches out  of Loring Park cutting through the heart of Loring Park. Minneapolis Sculpture Park is located just across the highway in Lowry Park.
* Nice mix of historic and modern urban in-fill. The 60s 70s balcony apartments are also pretty nice as they mostly face the Loring Greenway.
* Some homeless issues but overall a very safe neighborhood.
* Good cultural amenities including a decent amount of food & beverage bizs, a couple smaller performing arts venues, the Loris Park Community Arts Center, and walkable access to several theaters on Hennepin and several museums nearby and plenty of other Dwtn cultural amenities.
* Generally good urban massing. Not too many surface parking lots. Most buildings have a good urban orientation but a fair amount of 1960s/1970s building that don’t have great human scale.

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

• Limited generational diversity. Few children reside in Loring Park.
• Retail amenities within Loring Park are pretty underwhelming given the neighborhood’s density and Center city Location. Amenities include a supermarket, a game store, a couple gyms, several churches, the Minneapolis Convention Center, several salons, a bridal store, and pretty good access to a major hospital in Elliot Park. Good access to a decent # of retail amenities in Downtown Minneapolis.