Minneapolis’ Hiawatha corridor is a once prominent milling, grain storage, manufacturing, and industrial area of the city. Only a few original, historic buildings remain along this rail corridor, including the Millworks Lofts site. After researching the history of the property, BKV Group’s design team learned that the notable Lake Street Sash & Door Company used to occupy the property. The site includes a three-story warehouse with exterior masonry walls and a heavy timber frame, which was the main factory. Attached to this were four timber-framed cold storage sheds.

Millworks Lofts is a unique historic adaptive reuse project in a part of Minneapolis where few historically significant buildings still stand today. The project not only provides for preservation of a historically significant property, but also revitalizes nearly an entire blighted city block, turning a pair of run-down buildings into 78 affordable apartment units. The project also provides additional housing stock within a few blocks of the nearby public light rail transit station. Without the preservation of the existing buildings, it is not likely that such a productive redevelopment effort could have occurred. Lastly, Millworks Lofts utilizes geothermal power for the heating and cooling of the building, making this project one of the first affordable developments in South Minneapolis to have this infrastructure.