IT'S OFFICIAL, WEST ELM IS OPENING IN THE NORTH LOOP.

View fullsize

Years after announcing their intent to open a store in the North Loop, West Elm has finally found a home.

The modern home furnishings retailer will open their second Minnesota location at 128 N 2nd Street on the ground floor of Second & Second, a new mixed-use project that will feature 156 apartments, 40,000 square feet of ground floor retail space and two levels of underground parking. Currently West Elm’s only Minnesota location is located on France Avenue in Edina.

The North Loop store will be located on the SE side of Second & Second and will face Velo Apartments and the Maverick townhomes. In total, the store will cover 11,000 square feet of space which tends to be around the average new store size for West Elm stores.

The company announced that they were planning a North Loop store in 2017, shortly after they announced they were planning a West Elm Hotel within the North Loop.

Originally that West Elm Hotel was intended to be constructed where “The Archive” apartments are currently being built. Later rumors emerged that the West Elm Hotel would be constructed as a part of the Foundry redevelopment which happens to sit right behind the Second & Second development. Right now, leasing documents state that that area is labeled as being home to a “boutique hotel” in the future. Whether that means it will be a West Elm Hotel or not is now largely in question.

The reason why? Unfortunately, earlier this year West Elm cancelled their plans for their first West Elm Hotel which was to be located in Indianapolis. Since then the West Elm Hotel website has been taken down and we have not heard any news on the future of the planned Minneapolis hotel.

Even with that uncertainty of Minneapolis getting a West Elm Hotel, at least we can confirm we are getting a West Elm store, right? Also, we kind of predicted this last year.

Construction bids for the new store are due on 09/11/2019 with construction expected to begin in October. West Elm is expected to officially open the doors to their brand new North Loop location in February 2020.