Josh Franklin, an attorney from St. Paul, stopped for a moment in the middle of First Avenue to admire the large “Go Lynx” text painted on the street. He thinks the timing of the team’s success is beneficial to the city, mentioning it would be the first professional championship in Minnesota since before the pandemic, and the unrest following the murder of George Floyd.

“Seeing this here … in 2024 just really gives an entirely new feeling to the city, bringing back togetherness,” Franklin said.

Minneapolis City Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw attended Tuesday night’s game with fellow Council Member Andrea Jenkins. Vetaw believes there’s more confidence in the Lynx’s chances this year given their past success.

“We got hyped up about the Timberwolves, but there’s a little bit more certainty in this,” Vetaw said.

In interviews with fans leaving the arena and others who watched at the Minneapolis women’s sports bar A Bar of Their Own, most said they had started following the team closely in the past several years. The popularity of Indiana rookie guard Caitlin Clark has brought new attention to women’s basketball. But some have been watching for much longer.

“I always thought women’s sports were popular, I think everybody just kind of joined the bandwagon,” said Crystal Ruiz, a season-ticket holder.

CBRE, which marketed the property, declined to comment on the sale.

Adam Duininck, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, said while the low sales prices might sound alarming, there are bright spots. Homeowners in the city are facing a few tough years of property tax increases as commercial values drop, he acknowledged. But the lower prices have also enabled new players to buy downtown properties, paving the way for fresh ideas to transform the urban core.

“Hopefully, they come into the market with a certain kind of energy and optimism that helps drive the market back up,” he said, adding public safety improvements have also fueled recent momentum.

Take the Kickernick Building, which recently opened an art gallery. Earlier this year, Twin Cities-based United Properties sold the historic former warehouse on the edge of the CBD for $3.79 million. In 2017, United paid $19.5 million for the building.

Just a couple blocks away, Tom McCarver and Steve Boynton bought a mixed-use, nearly 31,000-square-foot building at the corner of Seventh Street and Hennepin Avenue that most recently housed Seven Steakhouse & Sushi. Last month, they paid about $4.3 million, slightly more than half of what it sold for in November 2017.

After the restaurant closed during the pandemic, the building went into receivership and up for auction. McCarver and Boynton, executives at a company that owns billboards across the metro, were among nearly a dozen bidders. They won the auction in March, but because of “legal hurdles,” the sale didn’t close until last month.

A third wildfire burning within the Superior National Forest was discovered Tuesday near Bogus Lake in Cook County.

The fire, 45 acres in size, was active overnight into Wednesday as firefighters and aircraft continued suppression efforts, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The cause is unknown.

Bogus Lake is less than 20 miles northeast of Grand Marais.

A drought has put much of the upper Midwest, from northern Minnesota to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, under “above normal” conditions for potential wildland fire, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

The Bogus Lake Fire is the second wildfire to be discovered in the Superior National Forest this week and the third one actively burning since early September.

Monday, a fire was detected on the eastern side of Shell Lake, about 4 miles north of Road 116 within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in St. Louis County. That fire is less than one acre, with the potential to spread east near Agawato Lake and the Sioux-Hustler Hiking Trail, the Forest Service said.

That fire grew to 45 acres and half of it was contained as of Oct. 1, according to the Forest Service. It is suspected of being caused by humans. Firefighters remain assigned to the fire.