Thresher Square
The Canopy by Hilton Minneapolis Mill District brings new life to a pair of historic buildings in the East Town neighborhood of Minneapolis. Hess Roise managed the historic design review process to secure the historic tax credits that were vital to funding the property’s transformation.
Built in 1900 and 1904, the Advance Thresher Company and the Emerson-Newton Implement Company buildings were part of a vital industrial neighborhood and produced farm implements that were shipped across the Midwest. The Sullivanesque buildings were slated for demolition in the 1970s, but were saved and later listed in the National Register of Historic Places and designated as a City of Minneapolis Landmark.
In the 1980s the buildings were combined into one property and renovated for use as an office building known as “Thresher Square.” As the neighborhood grew around it, Thresher Square was left behind and in need of repairs. Federal and state historic tax credits helped the buildings find new life once again.
The project replaced non-historic fiberglass windows with historically appropriate wood windows on the buildings’ upper stories. The team preserved historic storefront windows, and brick, stone, and terra-cotta, maintaining the property’s historic character. Historic loading dock openings on the north facade were reopened, incorporating new windows and a new accessible entrance for the hotel. Inside, the historic timber structure provides a stunning focal point, and several damaged timbers were replaced in kind with new fir timbers. A 1980s atrium was modernized, including a sleek new skylight, allowing natural light to wash the building’s interior.
The rehabilitation of Thresher Square was approved for historic tax credits, and the project’s investment will help the property stand as an iconic historic landmark for another hundred years.