After a successful five year partnership, Green Minneapolis’s contract with the City of Minneapolis to fundraise, operate, maintain and program Peavey Plaza will conclude at the end of December, 2023. Informed by the organization’s strategic plan, Green Minneapolis’s board opted to not renew its Peavey Plaza operating contract with the City in order to focus its efforts on expanding its Twin Cities Climate Resiliency Initiative – an ambitious program to address the impacts of climate change on urban residents by protecting and expanding the Twin Cities urban tree canopy.
Green Minneapolis’s Peavey Plaza partnership with the City of Minneapolis started in 2017, when Green Minneapolis led fundraising for the City’s $10 million project to renovate Peavey Plaza. When the renovated Peavey Plaza opened in 2019, Green Minneapolis entered into a 5 year contract to fundraise, operate, maintain and program Peavey Plaza on behalf of the City. Since 2019, Peavey Plaza has once again become a community gathering place welcoming tens of thousands of visitors to splash in its fountains or take in a concert or dance performance. This year’s Summer at Peavey Plaza! included 140 free events that attracted over 17,000 visitors. Peavey Plaza has won multiple design and programming awards including The Cultural Landscape Foundation 2019 Award for Stewardship Excellence, American Institute of America Minnesota 2021 Historic Rehabilitation Award, Docomo 2022 Civic/Institutional Design Award of Excellence, American Society of Landscape Architects Design Award 2023, and three consecutive years (2021, 2022 and 2023) of the Mpls Downtown Improvement District’s Greening & Public Realm Award for Best Activated Space.
Green Minneapolis has been honored to partner with the City of Minneapolis over the last seven years to bring this architectural masterpiece and cultural gathering place back to life, and Green Minneapolis is dedicated to ensuring that Peavey Plaza continues to be a green oasis downtown – vibrant, beautiful and welcoming to all. To that end, Green Minneapolis is assisting the City to transition its Peavey Plaza services to the Mpls Downtown Improvement District (DID). The DID has served as a subcontractor to Green Minneapolis providing maintenance and ambassador services to Peavey Plaza since 2020, and its experience working at Peavey Plaza – as well as its broader services keeping downtown Minneapolis clean, safe and green – makes the DID an excellent partner to take over operations of Peavey Plaza. The DID’s contract with the City to operate Peavey Plaza is under City review with an expected start date of January 1, 2024.
Green Minneapolis’s commitment to keeping Peavey Plaza welcoming and vibrant will continue after this transition. All donations to Green Minneapolis directed towards Peavey Plaza received through the end of December 2023 will be used by the DID for programming at Peavey Plaza in 2024, and Green Minneapolis will continue in its fiduciary role overseeing donated funds raised for the Peavey Plaza Capital Reserve to be used for future enhancements of the plaza. Green Minneapolis is grateful for the many donors and sponsors who have supported our work at Peavey Plaza over the last five years, and encourage all to continue to support and visit Peavey Plaza as the DID takes over the stewardship of this special Minneapolis landmark.