Downtown Minneapolis staple Nate's is off to the 'burbs

Nate's Clothing, which has sold moderately priced menswear in downtown Minneapolis for more than 90 years, plans to move sometime next year to the suburbs.

Owner Alan Witebsky, whose grandfather Nate founded the business in 1916, said Wednesday that a site for a new store has not been chosen, but that it most likely would be in the south, west or southwestern suburbs.

Witebsky said the move won't happen until the sale of the building Nate's owns and occupies at 401 1st Av. N. is completed. Circle Pines-based Uppal Enterprises recently agreed to buy the 52,000-square-foot building, and the sale is expected to close early next year, according to Lee Tuchfarber, a broker at the Twin Cities office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker.

Witebsky said the increasing cost and difficulty of parking for customers prompted his decision.

"We have always been somewhat of an island, not being plugged into the skyway system," he said.

"But more and more, we've started to feel like an island with a moat around it."

The store's mostly daytime hours are out of sync with the growing nightlife scene in the Warehouse District, he added. "People are coming to this part of town to go a Timberwolves game or a bar, not to shop."

Ken Sherman, whose Sherman Group owns and manages several properties in the Warehouse District, agreed that the area presents challenges to retailers such as Nate's.

"There are sporadic pockets of retail here, but the neighborhood really is more of an entertainment district," he said.

Vik Uppal, president of Uppal Enterprises, said his firm is formulating its plans for redeveloping the property, known as the Manufacturers' Building. He said he hopes to put a restaurant or nightlife establishment on the ground level that now houses Nate's. Uppal said there are no plans yet for four upper floors that currently house small-office tenants.

Witebsky said his family has owned the 92-year-old Manufacturers' Building for about 30 years and operated its store there for about 22 years. It's the fourth location for Nate's, whose original store was at Marquette Avenue and S. 2nd Street.

Witebsky said that he and other family members involved in the business never considered keeping the Warehouse District property after moving the store.

"We've had a tremendous run here in downtown, but we're retailers, not real estate guys," he said.

Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723