This week the Minneapolis Downtown Council heard from a number of major downtown Minneapolis employers about resuming their back-to-work plans as Covid-19 cases come down statewide after the Omicron variant surge.
"We heard from the City of Minneapolis, Xcel Energy, Wells Fargo, Ameriprise, and Target, who has already opened its offices for workers to come back on a voluntary basis," said Minneapolis Downtown Council President and CEO, Steve Cramer. "U.S. Bank is also headed in that direction."
According to reporting by the Star Tribune, March 7 marks the day when Xcel Energy will bring back 6,000 remote workers. Ameriprise and Wells Fargo have resumed in-office work and the City of Minneapolis will bring back most of its 4,000 workers on a hybrid basis starting February 14.
"February, March, and April I think we'll see more companies bringing forward their back-to-office plans which will certainly involve more flexibility," Cramer said. "Not as many people as before will be in the office 5 days a week, but it will certainly add to the number of people in downtown, add to the vibrancy, economic pace, and the sense of presence of people downtown."
Cramer says there are added questions and concerns with the return of workers to downtown Minneapolis. Public safety remains the top discussion point surrounding the area.
"There is a reality to the public safety issue in downtown and we need to acknowledge that."
Cramer said for some people, it will be the first time in two years that some people have been to downtown Minneapolis. With that, he adds the Downtown Council continues to work on issues regarding public safety and ensuring the invitation to downtown is there for people.
"That's what we found all of 20201 as people would come back for the Twins, Vikings, or show they would discover that the environment wasn't what they imagined it to be," Cramer said. "It's about being realistic about public safety issues and not denying there are issues and working hard to deal with those and communicating what those steps are. Inviting people back to experience what downtown is about, which is not in any way, shape, or form what some people would have you believe. I think that's the approach we're going to continue to take."
