4Marq is very much a product of its time. Named for it’s location at 400 Marquette Avenue in Minneapolis’ Downtown West neighborhood, this 30-story luxury apartment highrise was developed in the wake of the Great Recession, officially opening to residents in 2015.
They opened their doors during a period of time when there simply weren’t many developers or lenders willing to take a chance on the Downtown Minneapolis market quite yet, let alone one that totaled nearly $60 million in construction permits to complete. Financing was still less than straightforward to secure. Unemployment numbers for the Twin Cities metro area were starting to decrease, but were still several points higher than pre-recession levels. And nobody quite new what the long-term economic outlook was going to look like for many of the major companies with significant office presences in Downtown Minneapolis.
Companies like Target (current downtown workforce: 7,100 employees) didn’t know how fast consumer demand at their stores was going to rebound. Wells Fargo (5,500 employees) and US Bank (4,250 employees) were navigating a post financial crisis world, where many of their former lending practices had to be fully overhauled in order to avoid a complete meltdown of the world economy.
This is the world into which 4Marq was created: a product of its timing, and a beneficiary of its circumstances. Even though it has been almost a full decade since their opening, we’ll share why renting an apartment at 4Marq is worthy of your consideration, as well as our top 5 reasons why we think this just might be the most under-rated luxury apartment rentals in Downtown Minneapolis.
Location
A post-Great Recession addition to the Downtown West section of Minneapolis, 4Marq opened its 261 apartment doors to residents beginning in 2015. It’s central location puts it in a unique proximity to a multitude of notable locations:
- 2 blocks from the North Loop Warehouse District (whose border is commonly considered to be Hennepin Avenue).
- 5 blocks from Target Center (home of the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Lynx, and frequent concert venue for larger musical acts)
- 5 blocks from The Armory (8,400-person concert venue)
- 6 blocks from First Avenue and 7th Street Entry (music venue of choice to the one and only Prince)
- 6 blocks from Target Field (home of the Minnesota Twins)
- 7 blocks to US Bank Stadium (home of the Minnesota Vikings, and frequent venue for any musical acts that require a capacity of up to 73,000 people).
If you are unfamiliar with the Minneapolis Skyway, it’s essentially an interconnected network of climate-controlled indoor walkways which weave all around downtown Minneapolis. It’s existence provides an indoor sidewalk above street level for those who live and work downtown to comfortably get around during the colder winter months. They are generally open until 6pm on weekdays, though with each connected building owning their own section of the Skyway, they are allowed to set their own hours and policies.
Many residents of downtown Minneapolis rental properties are of the opinion that the pros of having a direct Skyway connection within the property they live at far outweigh any cons, and we do wish that 4Marq had found a way to connect themselves to the Skyway directly.
Without an in-building connection point, the closest access for those wanting a warmer winter walking commute only need to go a very short distance in one of two directions from 4Marq’s main street-level entrance: either around the corner and taking a left on South 4th Street to the Xcel Energy downtown headquarters (4Marq’s literal next-door neighbor), or to the right on Marquette Avenue and utilizing the Nic On 5th or Fifth Street Towers as access points.
Amenities
4Marq’s amenity package has a lot of very nice qualities going for it. The Game Room on the top floor of the building has been recently updated with a billiards table, TV’s, plenty of lounge seating, and an attached outdoor patio.
The Rooftop Club Room – located just down the hall from the game room – comes complete with a demonstration kitchen and a full panel of wall-to-wall sliding glass doors opening up to its own outdoor terrace. Both spaces feel as fresh and relevant as any club room or lounge spaces you might find at another property 10 years its junior.
The fitness center has a fantastic view, and a well-above-average selection of cardio machines for residents to choose from. The attached fitness studio space has the ability to be set up as a spin class, yoga studio, or just closed off for any number of other private training styles.
For anyone wondering if there are any free weights to be found, the answer is yes to some kettlebells and dumbbells, and no to any squat rack or barbells. What dumbbells they do have are contained to a small padded platform, which allegedly helps cut down on any reverberation from weights being dropped or heavily set onto the concrete flooring.
Beyond these spaces though, 4Marq’s amenities have been effectively left in the dust by its newer competitors. There is no pool, no hot tub, no golf simulator, no maker spaces, no sauna, (though the hotel-style “tech bar” is a nostalgic throwback to a bygone era)…
And honestly, we’re kind of okay with that.
What they do have to offer, they are doing quite well. The fitness center is wholly adequate for 95% of gymgoers. The two separate club rooms on the top floor, each with their own attached outdoor terrace, are updated and have, dare we say, stunning downtown Minneapolis vistas for residents and guests to take in. They even have a few outdoor gas grills for all of your BBQ needs.
They do also have several work from home office spaces, as well as a larger conference room off of the main floor, which we were told was originally a hotel-style “tech bar” (a nostalgic throwback to a bygone era). Despite our curiosity over the original tech bar set-up, the current office suites are a modern upgrade, and are great for anyone needing to get out of their apartment to hop on a zoom call for an hour or two.
Aside from being notably undecorated and quite small, the fact that the office user needs to be sitting at a built-in desk counter with their back to the full glass door made the whole set-up feel slightly exposed. We do see the argument in favor of both of these design elements though – having relatively sparse office set-up and not facing towards the glass door does, in theory, help minimize distractions from the outside world.
At the very least, these office suites don’t strike us as a place where residents would feel particularly inspired to hunker down and work for any significant length of time. This notion was anecdotally reinforced during our tour of the property on a weekday early afternoon, during which time we observed exactly zero of these offices in use.
If you know your needs well and can cut through the amenity fluff on offer at most newer luxury rental properties in town, 4Marq might just have the perfect amenity package for you.
Apartment Style
Living Room and Kitchen
4Marq’s apartments are sleek, modern, and exactly what you would expect out of a 30-story highrise multifamily community. Yet as the property approaches its first full decade in operation, its apartments still feel stylistically fresh, and there isn’t a lot to dislike with the design choices which were made during the development process some 12+ years ago.
White and black flat-panel cabinets in the kitchens, silver hardware to match the stainless steel appliances and exposed round HVAC vents, speckled granite countertops, light grey paint on the walls, and lighter-toned (think: white oak) luxury vinyl plank flooring – it went together well in 2015 when 4Marq first opened, and it still goes together well now.
With one exception (we’re looking at you, frosted glass single-panel sliding barn doors!), there is virtually nothing in 4Marq’s apartment style that will push the property significantly outside of whatever the current day’s design trends might be.
At the same time, there is also an argument to be made that there is nothing about 4Marq’s interior design which even remotely sets apart from its competition. Some might even call its apartments somewhat… boring. The beige-grey carpets in the bedrooms and the beige-grey square tile flooring in the bathrooms will only serve to reinforce this notion.
Bedrooms
On average, the bedrooms are actually quite spacious. For 1-bedroom options, which is usually where you’ll see a divergence on in-unit closet storage space, more than half of their available 1-bedroom floorplans have walk-in bedroom closets.
Fair warning though: you won’t find anything to write home about with the closet organization systems they chose to install. One to two wire racks on each wall is all you’ll be provided; the rest of your closet organization needs need to be met on your own.
With oversized windows providing very good amounts of natural light in most units we looked at, we were also slightly disappointed to see that each window comes with slatted blinds over the more current roller shades which are seen at most other comparable properties.
Bathrooms
4Marq’s bathrooms carry over the similar designs from the other areas of the apartment. Black vanities with a solid white stone countertop anchor each bathroom. Chrome faucets, showerheads, and towel bars give a nice pop of brightness to the bathrooms as well.
Tubs come standard in nearly every apartment in the building, making that particular feature one less item for bath-enthusiasts to ponder over when deciding which apartment to rent. In units with more than one bathroom, some guest bathrooms break the mold by opting for shower stalls without a tub (though the primary bathrooms in all of these layouts do have a tub).
While we appreciate the thought process, every tub and shower surround is a single plastic insert. The only tiles to be found in the apartment are on the bathroom floors.
In a vacuum, the fact that 4Marq’s design team went for the extra-budget-friendly option when choosing how to surround their showers isn’t the end of the world. It’s only when you tour and compare nearly any other luxury property in Minneapolis that has real subway tile surrounds in their bathrooms that you feel the bargain-basement effect of 4Marq’s bathroom design.
This same effect is seen in their choice of in-unit washers and dryers. Yes, every unit in the building comes with a washer and dryer, but they are far from what anyone would call top of the line.
Outdoor Patios and Balconies
The only units with any private outdoor space attached directly to the apartment are located on the 8th floor of the property. Those lucky 8th floor residences that do have an attached walk-out patios are facing at least five vertical stories of the Xcel Energy headquarters building right next door to 4Marq, but the bit of privacy you give up to the offices across the alleyway is evened out by the reduced street noise from being tucked away from South 4th Street.
Despite the neighboring building, we really love the size of the outdoor patios for these units. Though you are certainly sacrificing some privacy and natural light, the size of each space is like having a full outdoor living room attached to your apartment. It’s rare to find non-penthouse units in other apartment communities with private outdoor spaces of this size.
These 8th floor patios also allow gas grills, something that is against fire code for nearly every other standard apartment balcony in the city.
Parking
On-Site Resident Parking
On-site parking is available in 4Marq’s parking garage, which takes up floors 2 through 7 of the building. Assigned stalls start at $185/month for the first stall, with second stalls available for $250/month.
Their parking availability is nearly always close to 100% capacity, but they did mention that if a stall is not available right away when you move in, they do have a waitlist that usually allows a stall to be assigned to you within a few weeks of your request being submitted.
Electric vehicles will find one of the best deals in the downtown Minneapolis rental market at 4Marq. EV-compatible charging spaces paying the same monthly flat rate as non-electric vehicles, and do not have to pay for any electricity usage or charging.
As of March 2024 though, 4Marq is officially listed for sale and being shopped around on the multifamily market. This sort of advantage for EV owners is exactly the kind of low hanging fruit that new owners see as an opportunity to crack down on in order to boost their net operating income, so don’t expect this perk of EV ownership at 4Marq to last.
Guest Parking
We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of guest parking available on site in the 4Marq parking garage. While its less than straightforward for a first-time visitor to figure out exactly where to go (guests and residents alike need to pull up to the outside garage entrance along South 4th Street), we do really like the fact that the guest parking is fully enclosed inside of the 4Marq garage.
Availability is first-come, first-serve, but visitors who are planning even a little bit ahead of their arrival should have no problem obtaining a spot for their vehicle. Should the guest parking be completely full though, the Downtown Auto Park directly across the street offers a publicly accessible parking garage with very reasonable hourly and daily rates.
Pets
Monthly Pet Rent for Dogs and Cats
4Marq is pet-friendly, and allows up to 2 animals in each apartment. Pet rent for dogs is $50/month, and $30/month for cats. A one-time pet approval fee of $300 does apply for any units with a pet, and dog breed restrictions do apply.
Pet Amenities
On site, 4Marq has an outdoor dog run, as well as a pet wash station, both of which are thoughtful amenities for a downtown highrise community.
4Marq’s Downtown West location leaves it several blocks away from any sort of outdoor park space, with the closest option being to 6 blocks away towards the Mississippi River and the adjoining green space along Great River Road. During the warmer months, this isn’t much of an issue for dog owners looking for a bit of an excursion away from their apartment. This can easily become a much more precarious journey during the colder winter months.
There are really no public off-leash dog parks in the area to speak of, with the closest options being the North Loop Off-Leash Dog Park or the Loring Park Dog Park. Both of these options would likely be more drivable than walkable though, so if you are planning on packing up the pup for a trip to an off-leash dog park, you’d be better served driving an extra few minutes to get to a larger option further outside of the immediate downtown neighborhoods.
Pricing
Disclaimer: exact apartment pricing is subject to a number of factors, and can change weekly or daily. As such, we always like to preface this section by reminding you that any specific pricing mentioned in this article was pulled as of the date the article was written. While we do periodically update the prices to reflect the current market rates, you should always go directly to the property’s website for the most up-to-date pricing and availability information.
4Marq offers Alcoves, 1-Bedrooms, 1-Bedrooms + Den, 2-Bedrooms, and 3-Bedrooms.
- Alcoves (starting at $1,322/mo)
- 1-Bedroom (starting at $1,467/mo)
- 1-Bedroom + Den (starting at $1,999/mo)
- 2-Bedrooms (starting at $2,095/mo)
- 3-Bedrooms (starting at $3,591/mo)
Price vs Square Footage
As we briefly touched on earlier, 4Marq’s apartments are, almost without exception, larger than those of nearly any other luxury apartment community in Downtown Minneapolis. Their Alcove units are nearly 600 sqft (579, to be exact), and we couldn’t find a trace of a full 1-bedroom floorplan with less than 700 sqft.
If you look beyond the necessary evil of having structural support columns located in some often unfortunate locations within the apartment, the layouts of a majority of their floorplans are extremely efficient. This means you aren’t losing square footage to extra long hallways or small nooks that only exist as a byproduct of a required building structure/component, and you can therefore use almost all of the space you’re paying for in your apartment.
One item worth noting: if you’re in the market for a 1-bedroom with a fully separate space from the living room and bedroom, and are debating between a 1-bedroom with a den versus a full 2-bedroom, we would strongly encourage you to go with the full 2-bedroom option at 4Marq.
Below is an example of their A10 1-Bedroom + Den floorplan. At 868 sqft, this apartment is currently available for $1,999/month:
Now let’s look at 4Marq’s B01 2-Bedroom floorplan, a 1,105 sqft unit with 2 full bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms, currently available for $2,095/month:
While both of these floorplans will give you a fully separate space to use as a home office, guest room, or home gym, when you compare these two different floorplans by looking at the price your paying per square foot, the value you’re getting tips drastically in favor of the full 2-bedroom apartment.
The A10 1-Bedroom + Den comes in at $2.30/sqft ($1,999/month, divided by 868 sqft). The B01 2-bedroom comes in at $1.90/sqft ($2,095/month, divided by 1,105 sqft).
What this $0.40/sqft difference essentially means is that you’re getting 17% more bang for your buck by paying an extra $96/month for the full 2-bedroom apartment. All other factors being equal (e.g. your budget flexibility, the view, etc.), we strongly encourage you to skip the 1-bedroom with a den floorplans and go straight to the 2-bedroom units that 4Marq has available.
Automated Pricing
4Marq utilizes an automated pricing system, meaning that prices can and do change on a daily basis. The exact price you will pay for an apartment is determined by your selected move-in date, and your specific lease length, with 6-15 month leases available at the time of this review.
A Few More Things To Consider...
Utilities
Every apartment is individually metered for electricity, natural gas, and water service, meaning you will pay for exactly what energy you use each month for each of these core utilities. If you are the type of person who is conscious of their energy consumption, this puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to your monthly utility bills. Make sure you factor in trash and recycling as well.
Concierge and Security
4Marq has 24/7 concierge service, as well as overnight security 7 nights a week. Though not in a “rough” part of town by any means, being in an urban downtown environment makes having services like these available outside of the management office’s normal business hours all the more important, and provides residents with extra peace of mind.
Management Office Hours
The on-site management office is open and staffed during normal business hours 7 days a week.
Guest Suite
A Guest Suite is available for residents to rent by the night. Comparing this cost to local Airbnb rentals or hotels, 4Marq’s flat nightly rate is a great option for residents who want their guests to stay on site but might not have the room in their own apartment to host.
Resident Storage Lockers
Oversized storage lockers are available on level -1 of the building. Each locker is at least 7 feet tall, and is 5 feet wide by 5 feet deep. At just $30/month per locker, these lockers are a very reasonably priced way to keep any nonessential belongings in the building without cluttering up your personal living space.at $40/month. A second locker of the same size can be rented for an additional $30/month.
Unit Transfers Available Upon Request
4Marq’s management team does allow for residents to transfer from one apartment to another during the lease term. While there are multiple stipulations on the actual mechanics and logistics of the process (for example, if you received a promotion or incentive at the beginning of your current lease term, you would need to pay that back in order for your transfer request to be approved), the important thing to know is that transfers are allowed, and according to the management team, quite common.
Why You Should Live at 4Marq
Downtown West Location
As with anywhere you choose to live, the first factor you should be considering is location. Downtown West is the perfect place to be for anyone who works downtown, or who wants the most central location possible to enjoy all of the amenities offered by downtown living. Concert venues, sporting venues, restaurants, shopping – it’s all within arm’s reach from Downtown West.
Best Value Luxury Apartments In Downtown Minneapolis
Strictly looking at the amount you pay per square foot in your apartment, 4Marq’s value proposition is extremely hard to beat. You don’t have nearly as many amenities within the building to utilize and enjoy, but the apartment price you’ll pay each month takes this into consideration.
If you want your budget to get you the absolute most apartment you can afford, and you want to live in downtown Minneapolis, 4Marq is more than worth a look.
