The State of Uptown, Explained: Closings, Cranes and Cautious Hope

Red Cow's Uptown location at 2626 Hennepin Ave. closed June 1, 2026, after 10 years, joining The Lowry, which closed April 26 after 15 years on Hennepin. Owner Luke Shimp told the Star Tribune that sales at the burger restaurant fell 60 to 70 percent when Hennepin Avenue reconstruction began in 2024 and never recovered, running about 50 percent down even after the street reopened. "I don't think there's a business in the world that can take a 60 percent sales cut for two years," Shimp said; he declined a new five-year lease. The Lowry's owners blamed "changing consumer behavior to city-specific mandates and economics, as well as prolonged and disruptive Hennepin Avenue construction".

The closings landed on a corridor with visible vacancies. But that same stretch of Hennepin, an 18-month reconstruction between Lake Street and Douglas Avenue, reopened to two-way traffic in October 2025 with a two-way protected bikeway, wider sidewalks, bus lanes and stations for the coming METRO E Line bus rapid transit.

The largest bet on the district is at its central corner. Doran Companies paid about $3 million for the southern parcel of the Seven Points center and plans a five-story, 228-unit apartment building replacing the former CB2 and Kitchen Window structures, with roughly 20 percent of units reserved for households earning up to half the area median income. The C-shaped building, approved by the Planning Commission over an appeal, fronts Hennepin Avenue, West 31st Street and Girard Avenue S. with a lobby, bike storage and a fitness center rather than ground-floor retail.

A district can lose beloved restaurants and draw major redevelopment in the same season, and Uptown plainly is doing both. The next test is already on the calendar: Hennepin County plans to reconstruct Lyndale Avenue between Franklin Avenue and 31st Street starting in 2028, another multi-year build for a district still recovering from the last one.