MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2010

Uptick in downtown Minneapolis Skyway foot traffic a benefit to commercial property owners

by Midwest Real Estate News Reports
Minneapolis-St. Paul

Skyway foot traffic volumes in downtown Minneapolis were up in 2009, according to the latest report from Peter Bruce of Pedestrian Studies.

The 2009 report shows a 4-percent increase in the median average traffic volume at the 10 skyway locations sampled in 2008 and 2009. Minneapolis-based Pedestrian Studies has been conducting the annual skyway and sidewalk pedestrian counts since 1991.

The study's annual report is used primarily by downtown property owners, building managers and retailers to gauge the level of pedestrian activity in and around their buildings and to help determine lease rates for commercial properties.

According to Bruce, half of the retail locations involved in the skyway study are seeing traffic levels above the yearly average volumes seen over the last decade.

"All of the buildings studied reported some increases in traffic," Bruce said, "and the increases at skyway locations ranged from four to 17 percent."

He said the buildings studied this year included City Center, Gaviidae Common, Northstar Center, Fifty South Sixth Street and 225 South Sixth Street.

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