Artspace NKB Lofts will adaptively reuse three historic, industrial buildings connected to the Northrup King Building (NKB): The largest complex of artist studios in the state of Minnesota and an anchor venue during Art-a-Whirl ©, the nation’s largest studio art crawl event. Artspace NKB Lofts will create 84 live/work units of affordable housing for artists and their families—including one-, two-, and three-bedroom units—affordable at 30 to 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) and available to income-qualifying artists from all cultural backgrounds. The redevelopment will also create 8,120 square feet of commercial space for creatives.
Located in the heart of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, Artspace NKB Lofts will be part of the Northrup King campus comprised of 13 buildings spanning over 13 acres, 3.5 city blocks, and 738,074 square feet in gross building area. The campus was acquired by Artspace in 2019 as a mission-critical endeavor to preserve space for an existing arts community of over 350 artists and arts-related businesses while expanding access. Artspace NKB Lofts will maintain the established reputation of NKB while attracting new visitors to the campus with public features such as enhanced bike opportunities including a new bike path, fix-it station, bike racks, and secure indoor bike parking for residents; and public space including a shared-use street/public promenade with sitting/gathering/performance opportunities, plantings, and enhanced street lighting. Redevelopment plans also include enhanced stormwater strategies, funded by the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO), that will reduce 80% of the annual total phosphorus and 92% of the annual sediment from runoff from the site that flows to the Mississippi River. Strategies include filtration trenches, bioswales, historic grain bin cisterns, runnels, and drought-tolerant native plantings. These measures will address current ponding in the parking area and clean the water that flows off-site to the Mississippi River.
