Minneapolis’ Northstar Center Gets A Glow Up

When it came to restoring Northstar Center—the linchpin of a 1960-era office/entertainment/parking complex in downtown Minneapolis—to its former glory as a city-center magnet, planners knew dining would play a starring role in its next chapter as an experiential working and living space. At the same time, the project’s foodservice designers knew the legacy building would include more than a few challenges.

“Foodservice had always been the unique (part) of this project historically,” says Matt Legge, developer and principal of Polaris Developments Group, the New York-based firm behind the new development. “We wanted to restore Northstar Center as a downtown dining destination, and use our culinary program as the through line for all the different space products we offer (meetings and events facility, flex office, traditional office space, etc.).”

Food plays a starring role at Northstar Center in downtown Minneapolis—from homemade doughnuts at Krona Cafe, to drinks at the Rosewood Room and even outdoor cooking on the rooftop.

Polaris, along with Taconic Capital Advisors, developed Northstar Center into a mixed-use building at the heart of a complex occupying nearly a full city block. Rippe Associates, Minneapolis, led by Senior Project Manager Jill Anderson, oversaw foodservice renovations.

Renovations of the 17-story tower started in 2020 and comprised 325,000 square feet of office space, 105,000 square feet of corporate storage space, 75,000 square feet of retail and hospitality space, and the 975-stall parking garage. Northstar’s grand reopening took place in November.

Food First

Northstar’s goal, according to its website, of serving as an “experiential, hospitality-infused, mixed-use ecosystem” starts with food. The street-level eateries, located in an airy atrium, include the Northstar Cafeteria and Krona Cafe. The third concept is Walkin’ Dog, the building’s iconic hot dog vendor, located next to the escalator connecting Northstar with the Minneapolis Skyway, the city’s elevated walkway system.

General Store, with an eye-catching checkerboard tile floor, “serves as a hub for Northstar and the Central Business District community,” Legge says. “We offer grocery items, including fresh dairy products and produce, and also dry cleaning pickup and drop-off, package handling, and most notably, takeaway meals. Many of our star dishes from on-site restaurants are offered here in family-style and as individually prepared meals.”

The Good Eating Co., the white-tablecloth arm of the global foodservice provider Sodexo, runs Northstar dining operations for everything but the hot dog stand.

Northstar Cafeteria’s menu, displayed on a black pushpin-style board with white letters, features Midwest favorites such as chicken pot pie and beef stroganoff. Along the wall, a line of grab-and-go display cases offer hot and cold options. The cafeteria’s decor draws from mid-century modern, featuring an open
design, terrazzo floors, molded plastic-and-wood seating, neutral palette and geometric design elements.

The eighth floor holds a 260-person conference room and an outdoor terrace with capacity for up to 350. Retractable doors connect the terrace to a deluxe bar and lounge area, dubbed the Rosewood Room—another nod to Northstar’s past. A seventh-floor kitchen provides bulk food to the main-floor cafeteria and cafe as well as the bars and meeting space on the floor above. A small warming kitchen on the eighth floor provides catering event backup.

Bumps Along the Path

The Northstar project posed plenty of unusual challenges for the foodservice team, ranging from health department permits, rooftop cooking codes, a ventless surprise, plumbing space requirements, delays caused by plan changes and the unexpected consequences of using older equipment.

In 2022, the foodservice team had finalized designs and received all health department permits. But between post-pandemic supply chain issues followed by redesigns requested by the first, then a second, then a third foodservice operator, some two years passed with no construction. “That is when we discovered that the health department permits had expired,” Anderson says. “The project had evolved, and they needed to review the new plans for compliance. We had to apply all over again.”

Northstar’s planned outdoor terrace, equipped with a bar and a propane-fueled grill station, uncovered new learnings about (rare) commercial rooftop cooking in Minneapolis. The fire marshal pointed to the proposed grill and told planners that the Fire Code does not allow propane cooking on rooftops or balconies.

“Luckily, the grill supplier we had specified also offers a model that runs on natural gas,” Anderson says. The change required building engineers to add a natural gas supply line to the rooftop.

Another unexpected change was triggered by the ventless fryer specified for the cafeteria. “We had chosen several pieces of ventless cooking equipment for the first floor due to the challenges of adding in 17 stories of exhaust ductwork,” Anderson recalls. The ventless lineup included a speed oven, an electric griddle and a high-capacity fryer. “After we placed the order for the fryer, the supplier sent a legal waiver we needed to sign before they shipped the unit. The waiver required us to install a fresh air intake with a certain amount of cycles per minute,” Anderson says.

Several outside engineers confirmed the ventless fryer’s need for a fresh air supply, partly due to the cafeteria’s “landlocked” location within the building. “In the end the general contractor added ducting from the outside without impacting our cookline,” Anderson says. “Looking forward, we encourage manufacturers to include that information up front.”

Adding homemade doughnuts to Krona Cafe’s menu meant specifying a doughnut fryer, as well as a dough mixer, prep space and holding cabinet for the support kitchen.

Behind the scenes, plumbing led to layout pivots for Krona Cafe as well as the cafeteria’s warewashing areas. Low ceiling heights and lack of a central mechanical room supplying hot water led planners to opt for compact hot water heaters mounted near the ceiling. “What we did not expect was how much extra room the above-floor plumbing required, what with the backflow prevention devices, pipe insulation and more,” Anderson says. “The pipes took up space we had not accounted for. But because many of the nearby pieces were on casters, the layout could be adjusted to accommodate.”

Throughout the project, seemingly small requests caused big ripples. For example, when deciding on display cases for Krona Cafe, the owners requested that doughnuts—a staple of 1960s coffee shops—were a part of the pastry lineup. “To make fresh doughnuts … for the cafe, we needed to design in an area for a doughnut fryer, as well as a dough mixer, prep space and holding in the seventh-floor production kitchen,” Anderson recalls.

Another example, also from Krona Cafe, centered on whether to place the espresso machine on the front or the back counter. (Spoiler: It ended up at the front.) “To run an espresso station, you need a knock box, rinser, undercounter refrigeration and trash,” Anderson says. “It seems like a small thing, but all those components impact how the counters are designed and fabricated, and as a result, led to a rework of the counters.”

And last but not least, while Northstar’s foodservice installations on the first floor enjoyed all-new equipment, budget constraints led to different decisions for the seventh-floor production kitchen.

“The owners had been told that the existing equipment, which had been in storage, could still perform—and some of it could,” Anderson says. “They asked us to change out only the hoods. In fact, many pieces needed servicing. The cost of getting them back in running condition—and the future cost of maintaining them—proved almost the same as buying new would have.”

Northstar’s Future

As Northstar continues to grow its business, “we hope that we’ve delivered an environment that will add reasons for people to come back downtown,” Legge says. “We offer an experience that exceeds the convenience and enjoyment of working from home, (which is why) we’ve placed so much importance on dining. Northstar’s culinary program proves a great example of the importance of on-site dining for workplaces to successfully attract and retain talent in a hybrid work era.”

FACTS

NORTHSTAR CENTER MINNEAPOLIS

OPENED: November 2024

NO. OF FOOD CONCEPTS: 5

FOODSERVICE TOTAL SIZE: 8,015 square feet

OWNER’S REP: Polaris Developments Group, New York

FOODSERVICE OPERATOR: The Good Eating Co./Sodexo, North Bethesda, Md.

CONSULTANT: Jill Anderson, senior project manager, Rippe Associates, Minneapolis

ARCHITECT: RSP Architects, Minneapolis

DEALER: Boelter, Minneapolis

FABRICATOR: Vollrath Manufacturing Services, Sheboygan, Wis.

WEBSITE: northstarcenterminneapolis.com

Key Equipment

Northstar Cafeteria 

Traulsen reach-in refrigerator

Manitowoc ice maker, bin, water filtration system

Hobart undercounter dishmachine

Metro warming cabinet

True undercounter freezers and refrigerator, cold display case, cold prep table

TurboChef speed oven

BSI food shields

CookTek induction warmers

Structural Concepts cold and heated display cases

Giles ventless fryer

Vitamix blender

Santos juicer

Evo ventless electric cooktop

Wells hot food well

Krona Cafe 

Metro shelving

Traulsen reach-in refrigerator

Manitowoc ice maker, bin, water filtration system

Hobart undercounter dishmachine

Bunn cold draft coffee brewer, coffee brewer/warmer, hot water dispenser

Mazzer espresso grinder

Espresso Parts glass rinser

Vitamix blender

Glastender drop-in ice bin

Federal Industries ambient bakery display case, cold display case

La Marzocco espresso machine

True undercounter refrigerator

Walkin’ Dog

Summit display refrigerator

Metro shelving

Waring shake mixer

LTI drop-in cold pan

Wells hot food well

Stoelting soft serve machine

Vollrath custom work counter, serving counter

BSI food shields

TurboChef speed oven

True reach-in refrigerator/freezer

Alto-Shaam warming cabinet

Cornelius ice/soda dispenser

Editor’s note: This list, as well as the floor plans, represent a portion of the project.

T&S Brass is pleased to sponsor FER’s Kitchen Design feature. To learn more, visit tsbrass.com.