A revitalized riverfront

The Minneapolis Riverfront Partnership is a state-chartered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that facilitates and supports coordinated revitalization of the Mississippi Riverfront in the City of Minneapolis. Our work encompasses the entire Minneapolis riverfront, but we put an emphasis on the area upstream of Saint Anthony Falls, which has the most unrealized potential value as a civic asset. Over the last decade, this section of riverfront has been the focus of significant redevelopment efforts.

Our mission sheds light on our role: “The Minneapolis Riverfront Partnership brings diverse community partners together to shape a vital role for the Mississippi River in enhancing the economic, social and natural life of the City of Minneapolis and to ensure that this development benefits all segments of the community.”  We advance our role in three ways:

• We inform others about riverfront revitalization by producing high quality data-driven research that measures progress and sheds light on key areas of opportunity.
• We engage the public in riverfront revitalization through various approaches toward civic placemaking, such as our Mississippi Minute Film Festival and our annual Riverfront Festival.
• Finally, we work to accelerate riverfront revitalization efforts by coalescing community partners around key areas of priority along the riverfront.

Our history

During the process of developing the award-winning Above the Falls, A Master Plan for the Upper River in Minneapolis (2000) the City of Minneapolis led an inter-agency study to explore organizational changes that would allow Minneapolis to continue its riverfront revitalization efforts in a more effective, efficient manner.

Their research indicated that riverfront revitalization may best be achieved through the creation of a private, non-profit corporation. The 2000 plan and its subsequent 2013 update contemplate that a third-party organization might “act as the champion for the redevelopment effort, building support in the community, including north and northeast Minneapolis neighborhoods, area businesses, and among private landowners.”

In 2008, the City of Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, and the Minnesota Legislature authorized a nonprofit corporation to be formed to “facilitate and support coordinated revitalization of the Mississippi riverfront in Minneapolis.”  In 2013, the Minneapolis Riverfront Partnership launched the data-driven Riverfront Vitality Project, the first comprehensive look at the Mississippi Riverfront in Minneapolis.