©2025 Real Estate Publishing Corporation
October 2025 • VOL. 42 No. 5
Walkability matters: Pedestrian-friendly cities – like Minneapolis-St. Paul – attract more businesses, renters and new development By Dan Rafter, Editor
It’s easy to walk to public parks, transit stops, restaurants, retailers and entertainment options in downtown Minneapolis, which helped the city earn a top walkability score. (Photo credit: Jacob Boomsma.)
M
inneapolis continues to rank as one of the most walkable cities in the United States. And that status is good news for multifamily developers, retailers and business owners who want to bring their workers back into the office. Why? A growing number of people want to live in walkable cities. Building a multifamily development in a neighborhood in which people can walk to stores, restaurants, theaters and public transportation will attract a steadier stream of tenants. These renters need restaurants to eat at and stores to shop at. Retailers
that open in walkable neighborhoods, then, boost their chances at earning bigger profits.
retailers while seeing the vacancy rates in their office properties start to tick down.
And companies that lease office space in walkable neighborhoods? They might find it easier to entice workers to return to the office on a more frequent basis if they can offer their employees quick access to coffee shops, restaurants, clothing stores and public transit stops.
Yardi Matrix in early October released a study on the best walk-and-ride cities, urban hubs in which people can ditch their cars and walk or ride their bikes to public transit stops, restaurants, parks, theaters, grocery stores and other retailers. Minneapolis topped the list of the nation’s best walk-and-ride city.
Boasting walkable neighborhoods, then? It’s a positive for cities like Minneapolis, and can help these urban hubs attract new apartment developments and
This is partly because city officials have taken steps to make city streets safer and more inviting for peWalkability to page 24
Sales activity remains muted, vacancies tick up slightly in Minneapolis-St. Paul industrial market By Dan Rafter, Editor
W
hile the Minneapolis-St. Paul industrial market remains a strong one, the sector does face challenges, according to a third-quarter report from Transwestern. In its third quarter Minneapolis-St. Paul Industrial Market report, Transwestern said that the vacancy rate for the Twin Cities area in the third quarter of 2025 stood at 5.4%. That’s a slight jump of 0.4 percentage
points from the previous quarter while remaining unchanged on a year-over-year basis. What’s behind the slight bump in vacancy? Transwestern said that it was primarily driven by a net increase of 678,000 square feet of vacant space in warehouse/office properties in the Twin Cities market during the quarter.
In another key stat, Transwestern reported that net absorption totaled negative 354,237 square feet in the Twin Cities industrial market in the third quarter. Three major tenant move-outs contributed to 965,000 square feet of vacated space, including Sportsman’s Guide leaving behind 422,727 square feet at 411 Farwell Ave. in Saint Paul, Lumbermen’s Inc. vacating Sales to page 24