business

The IDS Center has taken the first steps toward redeveloping its long-vacant basement with the recent opening of a branch of Globe University/ Minnesota School of Business.

In April the school agreed to lease about 20,000 square feet of renovated space in what the downtown Minneapolis office tower's owners call the "concourse" level.

The space had been largely empty since discount retailer T.J. Maxx moved out about three years ago. The only other facilities there now are a meeting and document storage room for a law firm that has offices on the IDS' upper floors, and a small security office for the property's owners, Chicago-based Inland Real Estate Group of Companies.

The school began operating out of temporary quarters on the building's 19th floor in July. About two weeks ago, it moved to the lower level, where it has 11 classrooms, four computer labs, a library and conference rooms.

The school occupies about 40 percent of the vacant concourse space, according to Jim Durda, general manager of the building. Finishing touches now are being put on about 10,000 additional square feet of common space. The work included installing terrazzo floors and stripping drywall off columns made from the same Texas granite featured in the ground-level Crystal Court. The escalators from the Crystal Court were also replaced.

Durda said work is still going on to finish another 30,000 square feet for other tenants. Durda said that Globe's move could jump-start interest in the concourse.

"One of the things we heard earlier from people was that they couldn't picture what the finished space would look like," Durda said. "This gives them a much better idea."

He said discussions earlier this year with Best Buy ended because the retailer was concerned about the lack of a street-level presence.

Over the years, the concourse has had a variety of tenants, including a Woolworth's, a theater and a bar. Before American Express Financial Advisors (now Ameriprise) moved out of the IDS, the company had used some of the concourse space for an employee cafeteria.

The move downtown has been a homecoming of sorts for Globe. It operates cooperatively with the Minnesota School of Business, which began in 1877 in a building at 3rd Street and Marquette Avenue S. The school moved out of downtown in the early 1990s. In addition to Minneapolis, it has five schools in the Twin Cities area, plus schools in Rochester, St. Cloud, Moorhead, Eau Claire, Wis., and Sioux Falls, S.D.

Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723