About five years ago, I was walking around on the streets of Chicago Ave. and Lake St. in Minneapolis and we were talking about Christ and praying with people in the neighborhood. There were many homeless and very poor people walking around and it was a tough neighborhood. We told people that we wanted to make the neighborhood better by leading them to Christ. I remember one man saying, "If you want to help out this neighborhood, buy that building."

The building he was referring to was the Sears, Roebuck and Company Mail-Order Warehouse and Retail Store in the middle of South Minneapolis. According to the Wikipedia article on the site, it was built in 1927 and is the second-largest building in the state to the Mall of America. It's a huge, old stone building that was closed by Sears in 1994 and has a 211-foot tower that climbs above the surrounding area.

I was told that the neighborhood was getting a bit better but I hadn't been down there since then. A couple years ago I started hearing about a large redevelopment project on the property. I heard they were putting in some fancy condos and was worried that they'd drive all the people out of the neighborhood and just bring in lots of richer people. Thankfully, that did not happen.

Today I went into the building for the first time to get my state ID card renewed. I found that past the beautiful entryway and down in the basement was the nicest DMV office I've ever seen. It wasn't busy, looked great, and had fancy computer systems that called my number when they were ready to help me. (She said there was a glare on my glasses for the ID photo, and she asked if I'd take my glasses off. I bet I'm making a funny face just because I didn't have my glasses on.) Of course, I decided to stick around and find a bit more about the building.

Of course, the condos were there. I didn't see them, but The Chicago had a big presence in the signage and I've seen plenty of ads over the last couple years. I think a condo on the 10th floor of that tower would be so cool to have, overlooking all of Minneapolis. Of course, they are expensive, new property though. There's a lot of rentable office space there too, with a large Allina Health office on the main floor. I just realized that there's also a large section that is apartments for rent, many of which to people of moderate incomes

The biggest community benefit, though, is the Midtown Global Market on the south half of the first floor. It reminds me a lot of the State Fair because it's a large smorgasboard of items in a crowded marketplace. There was clothing, jewelry, art and collectibles, plus plenty of foods from all over the world. The many cultures that live in the neighborhood were all there to hang out with friends and enjoy life together. It's great that there's a year-round place just to congregate in public. Next time I'll have to remember not to each lunch before I go too!

Hats off to the city for doing a good job at bringing life into the neighborhood. It was really needed, and it seems like it helped out a bunch. Find out more information about the building and the Midtown area at the Midtown Exchange News site.