ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses major demographic and housing trends, employment and development projections, the extent of economic dependency, attractiveness characteristics, and major planning and development challenges in Twin Cities Megapolitan Area. About 60 percent of the Twin Cities megapolitan area's population lives in a knowledge class county, which is also where about 90 percent of the megapolitan area's population growth will occur. The Twin Cities megapolitan area is comprised of the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area and extends to moderately sized metropolitan areas to the west, along the southern edge of Minnesota, and into Wisconsin. In 2010, the Twin Cities megapolitan area could support about 1.5 billion square feet of nonresidential space, including industrial, commercial, and institutional uses. Counting space that will be replaced, a total of about 2.3 billion square feet is expected to be built or rebuilt, about 1.5 times the nonresidential stock existing in 2010.
