Gary Holmes has had a 20-year love affair with the old Milwaukee Road Depot.
Holmes' development company, CSM Corp., has poured a little more than $100 million into the purchase and renovations of the complex over the last two decades. The former train hub in Minneapolis' Mill District is now is in the middle of a long-awaited final phase of its transformation as a hospitality and event center, scheduled to be finished by early next year.
"I had a fascination with old buildings and loved old buildings," said Holmes, president and chief executive of CSM. "[At times] we had so many different people working [on the Depot], there was no way to know what the costs even were, but we just kept going. Every time we did something, we found a way to make it more splendid."
New renderings revealed this week show plans for the event space in the former train shed, expanded 24,000 square feet with boardrooms, a large glass-encased ballroom and an outdoor eating space complete with colored tile that echoes the depot's original train rails.
As of this week, the foundation system has been constructed and workers have started masonry and window-frame installation. Bookings are already underway for the complex, though it isn't scheduled to be complete until January.
The Milwaukee Road Depot was constructed in 1899 and designed by Charles Frost, who was the architect behind several other train terminals across the country including the Union Depot in St. Paul. The Depot served as the end of the line for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Co. At its peak in the 1920s, the Depot had 29 trains departing daily.
In 1971, the last train left the Depot, and some of the building was converted into office space. Years later, the Depot and the nearby freight house were placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Several developers had shown interest in possibly converting the Depot to other uses, including Holmes. However, the Resolution Trust Corp. — the government agency formed in the 1980s to liquidate assets of failed financial institutions — eventually sold the Depot and the seven blocks around it to the city of Minneapolis for $2 million.