2 down-on-their-luck 1890s Twin Cities apartment buildings are lovingly restored
A Gilded Age knockout
The developer behind the recent $110 million remake of one of the region’s great Art Deco landmarks into the Rand Tower Hotel was also simultaneously involved in a second, equally historic downtown Minneapolis makeover.
Nick Peterson, owner of Maven Development Group, invested $18.5 million in turning around the Laurel. When it opened in 1893, the spare-no-expense beauty near Loring Park (“The most elegant flat building yet erected in this city” chimed the Minneapolis Tribune) was the Victorian equivalent of Eleven on the River, the luxury condominium tower that’s opening soon on the west bank of the Mississippi River.
The Laurel materialized off the drafting table of architect Septimus Bowler, known today for his work on several houses of worship, including the extraordinary Mikro Kodesh Synagogue (now Disciples Ministry Church) in north Minneapolis and the former (and endangered) First Church of Christ, Scientist in Elliot Park.