Posted: 2:54 pm Mon, January 9, 2012
By Matt M.?Johnson
Tags: Hennepin Theatre Trust, Minneapolis Downtown Council, Orpheum, Pantages, Shubert, State Theater
Having even one show on stage in a Hennepin Avenue theater in Minneapolis can boost foot traffic from 900 pedestrians an hour to 2,000, according to a recent study by Pedestrian Studies. (Staff photo: Matt M. Johnson)
In the late 1980s, a walk down Hennepin Avenue at night meant spending some time in the dark.
At the time, the four major downtown theaters ?? the Orpheum, State, Pantages and Shubert ? were either closed or nearly so.
Now, these theaters are hosting hundreds of performances a year. Hennepin Avenue is bright and populated by crowds of people well past 10 p.m. The first pedestrian study of the theater district shows that those crowds are making the city?s nightlife almost as busy as its day life ? at least on Hennepin Avenue.
?People have a sense of what?s happening, but they didn?t have a number,? said Peter Bruce, president of Minneapolis-based Pedestrian Studies and author of several studies, including one of Minneapolis skyway traffic. ?What we have now is synergy.?
Minneapolis spent nearly $38 million in the last two decades to buy and rehabilitate the four downtown theaters. The Hennepin Theatre Trust ? the nonprofit that leases three of these theaters from the city ? opened yet another theater last summer, while others continue to open on the avenue. Downtown watchers say the theater redevelopment is keeping restaurants and hotels in business and generating traffic that encourages commercial activities to stay or move in.
In 2011, more than 515,000 people attended 326 stage shows at the Hennepin Theatre Trust venues. Thousands more bought tickets for shows at the Illusion Theater and at the recently opened Brave New Workshop and Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. In terms of a sidewalk scene, Hennepin Avenue foot traffic on a theater night is more than double the traffic that can be seen on the rare evening when no shows and no sporting events are taking place.
Bruce said a ?demonstration count? showed as many as 2,000 people an hour walking on Hennepin, between Sixth and Eighth streets, from 7 to 8 on a theater Friday night. Only one major theater ? the State ? had a show on one night of the theater district count, which was conducted over two nights. On a non-theater Saturday night, the avenue has about 900 pedestrians per hour. The study was commissioned by the Minneapolis Downtown Council.
This traffic outpaces Nicollet Avenue, where Bruce counted 1,600 pedestrians in front of Gaviidae Common and City Center during the 6-to-7 p.m. commuting and shopping hour.
A separate study of Twins baseball traffic showed that hourly volumes are as high as 2,600 people near Block E on Hennepin Avenue on a game night, Bruce said.
Kieran?s Irish Pub, one of the few remaining businesses in the Block E development, benefits from sports and theater crowds. Craig Wait, the pub?s manager, said Hennepin theater district crowds stand out from the usual traffic.
?It is more of a dinner-oriented crowd,? he said. ?When they have big shows, we definitely know it.?
The crowds have persuaded Capital Grill managing partner Alan Witcher to open early on show nights. The Capital Grill shares lobby space with the State Theatre in LaSalle Plaza.
?Depending on what shows are in town, we can regularly count on an early crowd to completely fill our restaurant,? he said in an email.
Chuck Lutz, deputy director of Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development, likens Hennepin Avenue?s renaissance to the one that occurred in Uptown in south Minneapolis. While dark areas remain ? such as the soon-to-be redeveloped Shinders building at Seventh Street and Hennepin ? bringing the theaters back has accelerated redevelopment by building interest in a street that was once ?absolutely desolate.?
?The theaters are drawing people downtown who otherwise wouldn?t come here,? Lutz said.
The city is being paid back for much of its investment. It signed a lease seven years ago with the Hennepin Theatre Trust, which will pay off $21 million in bonds over 25 years. The city also paid $5 million to relocate the historic 500-seat Shubert Theater from its original location at what is now Block E. The Shubert is now part of the $42 million Cowles Center at Fifth Street and Hennepin, which hosted its first performance in September.
Theater redevelopment is bringing more arts and culture development to Hennepin Avenue. This fall a consortium made up of the theater trust, the Walker Art Center and ArtSpace (the developer behind the Cowles Center) will submit a development plan to the city that maps 2.5 miles of future projects between the Walker and the Mississippi River.
Tom Hoch, president of the Hennepin Theatre Trust, said his organization got a bit of a head start on the plan last July when it opened a new 250-seat performance space in City Center. The New Century Theater adjoins the trust?s new offices.
Hoch said the trust?s new 12,300 square feet of space had been vacant for more than a decade, and leasing it fulfilled part of the trust?s plan to continue revitalizing Hennepin Avenue.
?Part of the strategy was to repurpose space along the avenue,? he said.
Expect more to come. Hoch said the trust hopes to see art galleries, restaurants and cabarets popping up along Hennepin in future years. At the same time, the Minneapolis Downtown Council is planning for a stadium district paralleling the arts district.
Sam Grabarski, president of the Downtown Council, said theaters have been a big part of the success of an area that also supports stadiums for the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Timberwolves. In 2010, the Orpheum was ranked by concert industry trade publication Pollstar as the 14th most successful live performance theater in the world. The State ranked 98th. The Downtown Council gathers Pollstar rankings annually, and it will announce 2011 rankings later this year.
Total 2011 ticket sales for the Hennepin Trust theaters came to $21.27 million, according to the group?s website. That?s nearly double the $10.97 million in 2010.
?Those theaters are among the most important in the world in terms of box office,? Grabarski said. ?That?s just gold.?
Grabarski said his group will continue commissioning studies like Bruce?s in an effort to make sure Hennepin Avenue remains vibrant.
?It just reinforces whether or not people?s perceptions are accurate,? he said.
[URLs]
Hennepin Theater Trust: http://www.hennepintheatretrust.org
Minneapolis Downtown Council: http://www.downtownmpls.com
[CAPTION] Theater 1
Having even one show on stage in a Hennepin Avenue theater in Minneapolis can boost foot traffic from 900 pedestrians an hour to 2,000, according to a recent study by Pedestrian Studies. (Staff photo: Matt M. Johnson)
[BOX]
515,000
Patrons attending shows at the Orpheum, State and Pantages theaters in 2011
Source: Hennepin Theatre Trust
[jumphed]
Hennepin ?Theaters are drawing people downtown who otherwise wouldn?t come?
[HEAD]
Give my regards to Hennepin
[subhed]
Overhaul of theaters
downtown helps drive
economic renaissance
By MATT M. JOHNSON
Staff Writer
In the late 1980s, a walk down Hennepin Avenue at night meant spending some time in the dark.
At the time, the four major downtown theaters ?? the Orpheum, State, Pantages and Shubert ? were either closed or nearly so.
Now, these theaters are hosting hundreds of performances a year. Hennepin Avenue is bright and populated by crowds of people well past 10 p.m. The first pedestrian study of the theater district shows that those crowds are making the city?s nightlife almost as busy as its day life ? at least on Hennepin Avenue.
?People have a sense of what?s happening, but they didn?t have a number,? said Peter Bruce, president of Minneapolis-based Pedestrian Studies and author of several studies, including one of Minneapolis skyway traffic. ?What we have now is synergy.?
Minneapolis spent nearly $38 million in the last two decades to buy and rehabilitate the four downtown theaters. The Hennepin Theatre Trust ? the nonprofit that leases three of these theaters from the city ? opened yet another theater last summer, while others continue to open on the avenue. Downtown watchers say the theater redevelopment is keeping restaurants and hotels in business and generating traffic that encourages commercial activities to stay or move in.
In 2011, more than 515,000 people attended 326 stage shows at the Hennepin Theatre Trust venues. Thousands more bought tickets for shows at the Illusion Theater and at the recently opened Brave New Workshop and Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. In terms of a sidewalk scene, Hennepin Avenue foot traffic on a theater night is more than double the traffic that can be seen on the rare evening when no shows and no sporting events are taking place.
Bruce said a ?demonstration count? showed as many as 2,000 people an hour walking on Hennepin, between Sixth and Eighth streets, from 7 to 8 on a theater Friday night. Only one major theater ? the State ? had a show on one night of the theater district count, which was conducted over two nights. On a non-theater Saturday night, the avenue has about 900 pedestrians per hour. The study was commissioned by the Minneapolis Downtown Council.
This traffic outpaces Nicollet Avenue, where Bruce counted 1,600 pedestrians in front of Gaviidae Common and City Center during the 6-to-7 p.m. commuting and shopping hour.
A separate study of Twins baseball traffic showed that hourly volumes are as high as 2,600 people near Block E on Hennepin Avenue on a game night, Bruce said.
Kieran?s Irish Pub, one of the few remaining businesses in the Block E development, benefits from sports and theater crowds. Craig Wait, the pub?s manager, said Hennepin theater district crowds stand out from the usual traffic.
?It is more of a dinner-oriented crowd,? he said. ?When they have big shows, we definitely know it.?
The crowds have persuaded Capital Grill managing partner Alan Witcher to open early on show nights. The Capital Grill shares lobby space with the State Theatre in LaSalle Plaza.
?Depending on what shows are in town, we can regularly count on an early crowd to completely fill our restaurant,? he said in an email.
Chuck Lutz, deputy director of Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development, likens Hennepin Avenue?s renaissance to the one that occurred in Uptown in south Minneapolis. While dark areas remain ? such as the soon-to-be redeveloped Shinders building at Seventh Street and Hennepin ? bringing the theaters back has accelerated redevelopment by building interest in a street that was once ?absolutely desolate.?
?The theaters are drawing people downtown who otherwise wouldn?t come here,? Lutz said.
The city is being paid back for much of its investment. It signed a lease seven years ago with the Hennepin Theatre Trust, which will pay off $21 million in bonds over 25 years. The city also paid $5 million to relocate the historic 500-seat Shubert Theater from its original location at what is now Block E. The Shubert is now part of the $42 million Cowles Center at Fifth Street and Hennepin, which hosted its first performance in September.
Theater redevelopment is bringing more arts and culture development to Hennepin Avenue. This fall a consortium made up of the theater trust, the Walker Art Center and ArtSpace (the developer behind the Cowles Center) will submit a development plan to the city that maps 2.5 miles of future projects between the Walker and the Mississippi River.
Tom Hoch, president of the Hennepin Theatre Trust, said his organization got a bit of a head start on the plan last July when it opened a new 250-seat performance space in City Center. The New Century Theater adjoins the trust?s new offices.
Hoch said the trust?s new 12,300 square feet of space had been vacant for more than a decade, and leasing it fulfilled part of the trust?s plan to continue revitalizing Hennepin Avenue.
?Part of the strategy was to repurpose space along the avenue,? he said.
Expect more to come. Hoch said the trust hopes to see art galleries, restaurants and cabarets popping up along Hennepin in future years. At the same time, the Minneapolis Downtown Council is planning for a stadium district paralleling the arts district.
Sam Grabarski, president of the Downtown Council, said theaters have been a big part of the success of an area that also supports stadiums for the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Timberwolves. In 2010, the Orpheum was ranked by concert industry trade publication Pollstar as the 14th most successful live performance theater in the world. The State ranked 98th. The Downtown Council gathers Pollstar rankings annually, and it will announce 2011 rankings later this year.
Total 2011 ticket sales for the Hennepin Trust theaters came to $21.27 million, according to the group?s website. That?s nearly double the $10.97 million in 2010.
?Those theaters are among the most important in the world in terms of box office,? Grabarski said. ?That?s just gold.?
Grabarski said his group will continue commissioning studies like Bruce?s in an effort to make sure Hennepin Avenue remains vibrant.
?It just reinforces whether or not people?s perceptions are accurate,? he said.
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