Top Projects of 2024: The Hall Lofts

CEDARst’s Hall Lofts was one of the most ambitious adaptive reuse projects undertaken in the North Loop this century, which is saying something. The development transformed the hulking Duffey Paper Co. warehouses and a parking lot into 358 apartments and 42,000 square feet of retail.

Coming on the heels of CEDARst’s 188-unit, pandemic-challenged Duffey Lofts warehouse conversion two blocks northeast, “Duffey 2.0” was something of a known quantity for general contractor RJM Construction, which ran both projects. But that doesn’t mean it was easy, said RJM president Ted Beckman.

“We had to do quite a bit of demolition to remove walls, replace all the mechanical systems and lighting — it was a full gut,” Beckman said.

Crews also had to cut a two-bay lightwell to daylight interior units and shore up the structure around it, modernize the elevator system, add new stairwells and carve out an underground parking garage in a column-cluttered basement, Beckman said.

That was just the beginning. The site’s historic landmark status qualified Hall Lofts for federal tax credits but significantly increased its complexity. For example, interior finish work began before the project’s window-replacement request came through, forcing crews to go out of sequence — and take pains to keep the newly weatherized units dry — when the request finally did, Beckman said.

The tight site in a bustling urban neighborhood posed its own challenges. Crews had to work around nearby structures, multimodal traffic and an historic alleyway that had to be preserved, Beckman said. Soil conditions and the presence of the Bassett Creek tunnel just offsite complicated things further.

“It’s always a concern going underground at a site like that,” Beckman said.

And though COVID restrictions were comfortably in the rearview by the time construction began, pandemic-related supply chain disruptions lingered. RJM and its subcontractors “had to get creative in how we sequenced work” to minimize the impact of delays in sourcing key electrical equipment, Beckman said.

He’s satisfied with the result, though. For all the challenges of the warehouse conversion, the new-build portion — 34 apartments and ground-floor retail surrounding a five-story parking ramp — is almost as impressive.

“You really can’t tell it’s a parking ramp,” Beckman said.

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* All photos submitted to F&C Magazine

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The Hall Lofts

Address: 608 N. Third St., Minneapolis

Project cost: $171 million

Project size: 550,000 square feet

Owner: CEDARst Cos.

Contractor: RJM Construction

Architect: BKV Group

Engineer: BKV Group (architectural); Loucks (civil)

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