Meet Minneapolis’ Melvin Tennant says it’s a good time to market the city of Minneapolis. As the organization’s president and CEO, he is “living the dream,” he says, ending a record-breaking summer that helped the city rebound from the effects of an economic decline.
“We suffered more than virtually any other city in the country at the start of the pandemic,” he says of the loss of leisure and business travel revenue. “We are the home of so many Fortune 500 companies where many of their vendors and employees come here on a frequent basis.” During the pandemic, he says, “that came to a screeching halt.”
Meet Minneapolis works with local travel and hospitality partners to recruit major specialty events. Their crown jewel this summer was the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials in late June at Target Center, a big boost toward recovery.
The two main reasons visitors come to Minneapolis are to attend special events and to spend time with friends and family. As a regional destination for visitors in Greater Minnesota and bordering states, Minneapolis tourists can choose from a variety of restaurants, as well as attend live theater, concerts, and professional and collegiate sporting events.
The city is also a draw because of our lakes, rivers, and park systems. “We’re just very blessed with having all of those assets,” says Tennant.
Though he doesn’t yet foresee another event that compares to the Olympic trials in magnitude, several events are coming to the city in the next year. This includes the Women’s NCAA Ice Hockey championship, hosted next year by the U of M’s Ridder Arena. The 2025 Boys Junior National Championship, held at the Minneapolis Convention Center, is expected to draw about 25,000 athletes, families and fans in early July.
“We can’t live just on major high-profile events,” explains Tennant. “We have to have events that are coming on a regular [and] consistent basis.”
The 2025 events calendar also includes the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) annual scientific meeting in September. The American Indian Science and Engineering Society national conference will be held in October. “I would call those kind of meat-and-potato events,” says Tennant.
Approaching 18 years as director of Meet Minneapolis, Tennant says, “What has sustained me is just the spirit of development and the can-do attitude of the leadership of the city.” During his tenure, expanded infrastructure included U of M’s Huntington Stadium in 2009, the Twins Stadium in 2010, construction of the US Bank stadium in 2016, and the renovation of Target Center in 2019.
“We’ve done all these things that have allowed us to recruit events that we would not be able to host before,” says Tennant. Yet it’s not just the brick-and-mortar infrastructure that makes his job interesting.
“It is the underlying relationships and the commitment of the community to get things done,” Tennant says. “That’s been the most fun aspect of my career since I’ve been here.”
Recently he was looking at a picture of downtown Minneapolis that captured the Nicollet Mall in the early 1970s. Its boulevard was lined with shops and major department stores—many of them now gone.
Like most downtown areas across the country, Minneapolis experienced the phenomenon of major retail stores migrating to suburban malls. What others may see as a barrier to growth and expansion, Tennant sees an opportunity to reimagine what Minneapolis’ downtown looks like and has to offer.
The reimagined building housing the historic Dayton’s department store will once again offer a holiday market with more than 100 vendors. This vision also includes converting what was once office space into residential units. The reimagined Holidazzle also will return this winter.
“We understand that it’s going to have to take a different approach to create the really vibrant downtown that we did [have] once before,” says Tennant. “But we are working with a lot of our partners to make that reality.”
With the support of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, these efforts are geared toward increasing opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs of color. Chameleon Shoppes offers downtown space for vendors at an affordable price. Benjamin Johnson, the city’s arts and culture affairs director, supports artists of color by displaying their work in downtown storefronts.
“As we reimage downtown, we don’t want to come back the way we were, where there were barriers to entry for many communities”
Melvin Tennant
“There is a strong effort to try to rectify that,” says Tennant.
Vickie Evans-Nash welcomes reader responses to vnash@spokesman-recorder.com.