Look toward downtown Minneapolis from most directions, and it’s hard to miss the Eleven riverfront condominium building, the new thin, tall, sleek white tower in the Mill District that sprouted from a former parking lot into the skyline. The 550-foot-tall riverfront condo at 1111 West River Pkwy. (which is slated to roll out the welcome mat to residents early next year) will be the city’s tallest residential building.

Earlier this year, the Eleven on the River condo tower topped out, which meant work on the building’s interior ramped up. Now, the building’s developers, Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos. US Inc. and Arcadia, is ready to show off a pair of completed model units within the 42-story structure ahead of its opening in February.

The condo mania of 2004 to 2006 is long gone. Nearly all of the construction cranes you see today are for new rental apartment complexes. The only condos under construction in downtown Minneapolis are so expensive that no one will tell you exactly how much the units cost.

The Covid-19 pandemic put a damper on much of what makes downtown living so appealing — the restaurants, the nightlife, the car-free commutes — but as downtown Minneapolis gradually reopened this spring, interest in apartments and condos rebounded in the urban core.