Originally located at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport and providing locally made Minnesota-themed gifts, Uptown MN is now bringing local art to Ridgedale Center in Minnetonka.
The shop doesn’t go for clichés. “We’re not the moose-on-a-T-shirt kind of store, or the wild rice store,” explains Pady Regnier, founder and CEO of St. Croix Promotions and Retail, which owns Uptown MN. “We want to celebrate the maker’s story and products.”
Marketing manager Eric Sitarz says there were several good reasons for opening a permanent store at Ridgedale Center. One was because of their success as a pop-up shop there during the 2014 holiday season.
The other was due to the lake area’s strong community of artists and craftspeople. “There [is a large group of] customers from that area, so it gives that community the opportunity to see what their local artists are creating.”
