The Lumber Exchange building in Minneapolis is set to change hands for a dollar this week, going to Kristi Oman—the same person who two years ago bought the Kickernick Building, another old downtown property, and transformed it into a hub for artists.
That, or something like it, is likely to be the fate of the 12-story Lumber Exchange building. In chats with Twin Cities Business, Oman mentioned she wants to keep the roughly 140-year-old, 225,569-square-foot space commercial (rather than making residencies out of it), converting it for artists and folks in the fashion industry.
The official sale price will be $20,001, Oman says. In addition to the $1 price tag, she must pay a $20,000 fee for taking the property off auction. Oman owns Space Unlimited, a Minneapolis real estate company specializing in restoration of historic buildings.
The low price suggests high building expenses. Oman says her plan is to designate some of the space for smaller tenants such as artists, fashion companies, and creative businesses. They’ll have options to pay as low as $500 per month, which Oman believes will give smaller businesses a renewed chance at space downtown. That low sales price would appear to make such low rents viable.
Oman’s work with the Kickernick may indicate the vision here: That red-brick, 120,000-square-foot property, at First Avenue and Fifth Street, was 99% vacant when Oman bought it at a steep discount in 2024. It sold for about $3.8 million, per a real estate filing, after it had gone for $19.15 million in 2017.
Oman has since rented the Kickernick to 55 tenants. Half are artists; half are creative businesses.
Oman also owns the Semple Mansion in Stevens Square—a 2005 purchase, per its website. The restored, turn-of-the-century property is used as office and special-event space.
With artists filling in more of downtown, Minneapolis appears to be partaking in a boom-bust cycle that characterized the formation of enclaves like SoHo in New York. When companies abandon an urban core and valuation dips, artists can move in.
Contrast this news with that of two data centers, as downtown Minneapolis sees expanded data-center activity in the former Wells Fargo building and in the Sleep Number building. Data centers don’t add a lot of dynamism; they don’t employ many, so they don’t directly create much bustle. But they raise the tax base, Minneapolis civic leaders note, which piques employers’ interests.