Ex-Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks selling ‘cherished’ downtown Minneapolis condo

Eric Kendricks, a former linebacker and fan favorite on the Minnesota Vikings, hasn’t worn the purple and gold in two years, but he’s just now letting go of one of his last physical ties to the state.

He’s selling his nearly 2,000-square-foot riverfront condo in downtown Minneapolis, listing it for $1.1 million last week. That’s slightly more than he paid for it in 2019.

He’s doing so begrudgingly.

“A huge part of me doesn’t want to sell it,” he said in an email.

The Vikings released Kendricks in March 2023 to free up salary cap space after he spent eight seasons with the team. The 2015 second-round pick out of UCLA finished seven seasons as the Vikings’ leading tackler and was an All-Pro selection and Pro Bowl nod in 2019.

Kendricks was also a leader off the field, as the Vikings’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee in 2020. That same year, he also won the Star Tribune’s Sportsperson of the Year for his social justice activism and community work.

For Kendricks, the timing of selling the loft — which is less than a half-mile from the Vikings’ home field, U.S. Bank Stadium ― was mostly personal. Since retiring from football after last season, he’s had a baby and is putting down roots near family in California (he’s a Fresno native). The 33-year-old had rented the condo out since he parted ways with the Vikings but says it’s time to offload the long-distance responsibility.

The Whitney was a flour mill built in 1879 and became a posh hotel in the late 1980s. It converted into a boutique condo building in 2007.

Kendricks’ two-bedroom, two-bath condo is on the seventh floor, overlooking the Mississippi and the gentle curve of the Stone Arch Bridge. It has a main-floor bedroom and bathroom as well as another bedroom suite on a mezzanine level accessed via a floating steel staircase.

The main living areas have tall ceilings and exposed brick walls. There’s also a river-facing balcony.

Kendricks hasn’t radically modified the condo since buying it: He added a Lutron automated shade-and-light system, upgraded some light fixtures and installed hidden blackout blinds on most windows.

“It’s great for a young couple or single person, someone who will come in and put their own touches on the kitchen and bathrooms,” said listing agent Peter Prudden. “It’s a great canvas to work from.”

That sale, and the lack of other available listings in the building, figured heavily into the timing of Kendricks’ listing, said Prudden, co-founder and CEO of Minneapolis-based Prudden Co.

It’s also a rare offering at the moment, Prudden said. The supply of historic lofts with an open floor plan and views of the Stone Arch Bridge is tight, especially at a $1 million price point.

“There are very few opportunities in the city that meet this criteria,” Prudden said.

In the Washburn Lofts, another former mill building just down the river a stretch, there’s a fully renovated, 4,362-square-foot condo for $3.4 million. Even farther down, however, there are at least 10 condos for sale in the Eleven on the River, a high-rise tower built in 2022.

Downtown East, which includes much of the Mill District, is by far the most expensive neighborhood in downtown Minneapolis (the Whitney is on the border of Downtown East and West). The median sale price of all closings during August in that area was $716,600, nearly 15% higher than last year at the same time, according to data from the St. Paul Area Association of Realtors.

That includes dinners with his wife on the balcony and many walks along the river “to clear my head,” he wrote in the email.

His teammates, who joined him for Thanksgiving dinners and Taco Tuesdays, also helped make it home. It’s where he celebrated Christmas with the family, walked to the nearby Mill City farmers market and took “many scooter and bike rides down the river with teammates.”