The restored North Star Blankets sign still flashes above the Mississippi River, albeit now with LED lighting rather than neon.
The once-renowned blanket factory is now the North Star Lofts, the first residential conversion in the historic Mill District, which helped launch the transformation of the forgotten Minneapolis riverfront in 1999.
Betsy Lucas, a Coldwell Banker Burnet real estate agent, recently listed an upscale 3,400-square-foot penthouse condo in the North Star Lofts for $3.195 million. And she knows the 36-unit luxury condo building along the river inside and out.
Lucas was one of the first residents and lived there for five years.
"The kitchen windows looked out at the Stone Arch Bridge," she said. "It was an exciting and emerging neighborhood."
Today the walkable Mill District neighborhood is home to the Guthrie Theater, restaurants, coffeehouses and blocks of new glassy condo high-rises.
The penthouse for sale is a corner unit spanning the third and fourth floors — plus a mezzanine — and steps out to a private rooftop deck with vistas of the river and rushing St. Anthony Falls.
Exposed limestone walls, 11-foot-tall ceilings and steel beams hint at the 1927 building's woolen mill origins. Huge arched windows draw in light throughout the open spaces.
