Apartments in Loring Park and Warehouse District? (Minneapolis, St. Anthony: hardwood floors, rent)

[mark2222]

Hi all,

My friend and I will be moving to Mpls in August and will be roommates. We will be making a combined $80k before taxes. We just graduated from undergrad this May. We won't be bringing cars to Minneapolis, so we were wanting to live close to downtown. We're looking for a 2 bedroom apartment in Loring/Warehouse that's anywhere from $1000-1600. The search is becoming more limiting than I thought due to availability for our move-in date.

Does anyone have any suggestions for places that might not be easily found on places like apartments.com? That's where I have been looking.

Thanks for any advice/tips/information

[Chug61]

I'm not as familiar with Loring Park, but I have to imagine that a 2BR for under $1,600 would be pretty difficult, if not impossible to find in the Warehouse District/North Loop. Our 1BR in the North Loop is almost $1,500 and that's on the low end of what we were seeing.

Are you wanting to live close to downtown because you're going to be working there, or because you want to be close to shopping/dining/nightlife/etc.? Because if it's the latter, there may be better options.

[mark2222]

I'm working on South Sixth Street so that's the main reason why we were wanting to live near downtown. I preferably was wanting to walk to work.

If I were to extend my search into Uptown, would I be getting considerably more for my money? Are buses from Uptown to Downtown reliable/good?

[StPaulGal]

I am a fan of padmapper. It pulls from numerous sources and plots everything on a map for ease of use. I did a search with your parameters (2+ bedrooms, under $1,600 a month) and got 2 hits in the warehouse district and 3 in Loring Park.

I don't think it's your move in date that's the problem. You are looking at the trendiest neighborhood in Minneapolis (North Loop/Warehouse District) and your budget is average-or-below for a 2 BR city wide. It's not a wildly unreasonable budget and I do think it is probably doable, but the offerings will be slim and I would be prepared to jump ASAP if you see something.

[mark2222]

I think I'm ready to ditch the idea of Loring/Warehouse. I've been looking at Uptown, and it seems we would get a much nicer place for much cheaper. Using Pad mapper, with a max of $1600 for a 2 bedroom, it doesn't seem like there is a ton in Uptown, which is surprising to me from what I've read. The biggest catch I've seen so far is KMS Calhoun, which is right by the lake and only $1000-1100 for a 2 bedroom.

Also what are the typical boundaries for Uptown? For example, below 33rd above 36th? I have no idea

[MplsTodd]

I'm not sure if there are official boundaries for Uptown, but I'd say it's below 26th Street, north of 34th, from Knox east to DuPont or Colfax. It's centered on Hennepin Avenue & Lake Street, just like Lyn-Lake is centered on Lyndale & Lake Street.
You could also look across the river from downtown around St. Anthony or Marcy-Holmes. That's walkable to downtown via the Stone Arch Bridge or 3rd Ave Bridge, and good bus service via the 6 route. definitely more student influence as you get closer to the U of M, though.

[uptown_urbanist]

I'll second Padmapper.

There are no official Uptown boundaries. But buses are reliable, albeit can get crowded. You'll have a longer commute (marginally) but be more likely to get a seat if you get on at or before Lake. I think anywhere south of Franklin to 34th and west of Garfield or Grand would put you somewhere convenient to live without a car (meaning walkable to grocery stores, multiple transit lines, etc.) East of there would work, too, but then you're starting to get solidly into Whittier. Which may also be a decent option, and, depending on where in Whittier, is not a bad walk to get downtown. Parts of it are just across the freeway from Loring Park, or else you walk in via the Convention Center.

[Brinson]

I loved Park Apartments but turned them down because there was no assigned parking space. There are alot of places like this from loring park down to MIA the 6-8 blocks in between. I think people call this the historical district.

The rent is cheap because people don't want street parking-- might be perfect for you if you don't have a car. I don't think any of them will be listed on major websites. These are 100+ year old apartments with hardwood floors and no elevators, usually not updated. Some people like this...some people not.

Two Bedroom Apartments Loring Park | Historic Minneapolis Apartments | The Park Apartments

[Ursicinus]

I highly recommend Laurel Village apartments, which are a block or two away from Loring Park. My wife and I have a 1BR for about $1100, and when we were moving within the complex, there was a 2BR available for around $1600. The complex has a lot of great amenities and activities, and is super-walkable/busable to everywhere (the #4 and #6 buses stop right out front, for instance). There are other, older buildings around the area with (slightly!) lower rent, but you won't get the same bang for your buck that you do here.

Now that I read that, I realize I sound like a shill for the place But seriously, we've been here for like 3 years now and we are still consistently surprised at how great the place is. If something breaks, maintenance is around within the day to come fix it (contrast this with the place I lived before Laurel Village where the window frame was broken and the slumlords claimed they "couldn't" fix it... during winter... in Minnesota... and the only thing that kept me from freezing to death was the 4" of ice that built up along the window, sealing it shut.)

So yeah, definitely check out Laurel Village. The only reason we *might* move away from here in the next year is we have a baby on the way and may need a little more space.