Two months ago, I wrote about Google Maps in Elliot Park. It was a #mspwalk and then blog post inspired by a coffee chat I had with Dan Collison, Director of so-many-things Minneapolis at Moose & Sadie’s. He mentioned and implied how Downtown East and Elliot Park (East Town) was growing and he’s right, more than I could have imagined! It’s really positioned well for it.

On the west edge of Elliot Park and East Town, Kraus-Anderson (KA) is in the middle of re-developing an urban city block which features their new HQ that opened in October, luxury high-rise apartment, a Marriott, Finnegan’s new digs among others.

What’s interesting isn’t that they’re building a square block, but where they’re building it. It’s technically in Elliot Park which was one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Minneapolis 150 years ago. Now, it’s starting to become gentrified to bring back some of the old charm and prestige to the combination of Elliot Park brownstones to the modern Minneapolis skyline view. It’s a block away from the skyway system, and quick walks to both the Downtown West neighborhood and East Town, home of U.S. Bank Stadium.

So far, the Kraus-Anderson block has their headquarters, Finnegans, HQ Apartments, and the Elliot Hotel, a Marriott upscale Autograph Collection either completed or under construction. All of these should benefit from quality Google Maps information including their respective, fully-populated Google My Business (GMB) pages.

The Google Maps cars should be kept fairly busy in the near future as well as opportunities for Certified Google Trusted Street-View photographers to help fulfill Google My Business pages with quality photos.

Voice Search for HQ Apartments

With products like Google Home and Google Assistant, the use of voice search is continuing to rise, and rise quickly. To the left is a voice search for the new HQ Apartments on the block.

You then have the options to tap the bottom options or anywhere up top which takes you to their respective Google My Business page. There, you have more of the same options plus the ability to see all photos, ratings and reviews and anything else that HQ or the public decides to populate in the HQ Apartments GMB page.

The mixed-used block is something that can at least help bring vibrant and tech-savvy consumers to the area. In addition to KA headquarters, here’s a bit about the mixed-use block and their post regarding the block’s components.

*The KA headquarters is the first completed component of the master-planned, mixed use block development in the vibrant Elliot Park neighborhood of East Town Minneapolis.

*Source – KA Block Update: November-December 2017

US Bank Stadium is arguably the anchor of the East Town neighborhood with businesses, organizations and areas of interest being built or already present around it. The area’s easy to get to by car, bus, pedestrian and bike, but is probably easiest via the Light Rail as the US Bank Stadium station holds both the Blue and Green Line trains.

In addition, nearby blocks are often vibrant as local destinations. Here are a few GMB pages full of ratings and reviews, photos, directions and other items that uniquely fit in them.

• Portland Tower
• Hyatt Place
• The Armory (newly renovated)
• Tavern333
• Hen House Eatery

Note – Three of the above are in the Downtown West neighborhood. Between this and the Kraus-Anderson block being short and easy access to both I94 and I35, their block could be in a perfect location and local destination. This development of urban city blocks in Minneapolis isn’t the first, but it’s certainly not the last, either.