The downtown Minneapolis building formerly known as the TCF Tower will soon be home to the Gray Fox Coffee & Wine Bar.
Gray Fox is a new venture by Danielle and Chris Bjorling, the owners of the Copper Hen, which is a bakery / bar / restaurant at 2515 Nicollet Ave. Nicollet is colloquially known as Minneapolis’ Eat Street.
Chris Bjorling presented plans for Gray Fox at Tuesday’s meeting of the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association’s Land Use Committee. He said his company had signed a lease for space on the ground floor of 121 S. 8th St., and would begin construction on the space in the next four weeks.
If all goes according to plan, the restaurant will be open by July or August.
The Bjorlings could not be immediately reached for further comment. Likewise for the team at the Minneapolis office of Los Angeles-based CBRE, which is responsible for finding new tenants there.
Gray Fox is one of several new restaurants to lease space in the 17-story, 1970s-era tower, which was given a makeover by Minneapolis-based developer Ryan Cos. U.S., Inc. to help reposition the building after TCF Bank moved out in 2015. A Naf Naf Grill location opened on the skyway level in 2017, and it was recently announced the Hot Indian Foods would be taking over another skyway space once occupied by a Subway shop. The property is owned by Wakefield, MA-based Franklin Street Property Corp.
