Beloved Minneapolis developer Ray Harris dies at age 96

Ray Harris was known to his family as the survival artist and funnyman who outlived three bouts of cancer, a house fire, fall from a tree, a bike crash into a brick wall and those annual birthday spankings from his entire clan while crawling on hands and knees.

He even lived to tell the tale about the time he put a non-extinguishable candle on his mom’s 75th birthday cake. She blew and blew so hard, her false teeth popped out.

But to Minneapolitans, he will forever be remembered as the guy who brought this city the now historic, nostalgic gems such as Calhoun Square and Figlios Restaurant.

He was the determined developer who helped save the Sears Tower on Lake Street from the wrecking ball. He and others ultimately sued Sears so it would honor its original sales agreement and allow the hulking art deco and former retail wonder to be converted into the building now better known for its Allina Healthcare offices and bustling Midtown Global Market.

Harris won his case, and the building. But the project financing got messy, ended with a foreclosure and the city stepping in to bring the project home.

Harris, who recently died at age 96, had practice with development battles.

In the 1970s and 80s he was the driving force that developed the corner of Lake and Hennepin into the once bustling retail center formerly known as Calhoun Square. He went on to develop the site of Orchestra Hall with the Pillsbury family. He brought Greenway Gables townhouses to Loring Park and established a well used dog park also in Loring Park. It’s the neighborhood where he was born.

In November 2023, the colorful developer and project archivist was admitted into the Minnesota Real Estate Hall of Fame.

But for those who knew him, Harris was so, so much more.

Harris was described by his family as wearing many hats through his long life journey: Stanford University grad, cowboy, wrestler, beach bum, a U.S. Army veteran and the self-anointed world’s cribbage champion.

Fellow Minneapolitans have a different take. To them, Harris is the guy who walked a giant Holstein cow on a leash through Uptown to honor his tenant Kemps Ice Cream. He’s the guy who showed up at MSP Airport donned in a full and lifelike gorilla costume (along with five family members) to meet his soon-to-be daughter-in-law for the first time.

And he’s the guy who raised five kids, and once confessed to living in what he called a “zoo” with two dogs, a monkey, a cat, a bat, a gaggle of guinea pigs and one tarantula. He once sat on an electric chair “for fun.”

He was “very sharp. Very funny,” said Jill Osiecki, director of the Uptown Business Association. “I really loved that he still had this passion for the [Uptown] area. That never stopped even though he put it on the map so many years ago. He’s definitely a legend.”

Harris readily shared his meticulous and bound archives that showcased photos, articles and drawings of building projects he developed over the decades. The city, the Uptown Association and Walker Library have all featured his work.

“Ray built many memorable buildings, challenged the city to be better on the building which turned into [Midtown] Global Market, and he had a big vision for Block E that the city never recognized,” said former Minneapolis City Council Member Lisa Goodman. “He was a real institution in the city. He even built a dog park with me.”

Harris never learned to sit on his laurels, even when constrained by a wheelchair.

In 2022, he “graduated” from hospice and told former Star Tribune reporter Curt Brown that “Above the waist, I’m still going 200 miles per hour.”

Harris wrote two books: The first was his self-deprecating autobiography “Out of My Mind,” published only for family and friends. His second book “Welcome to Wynott” detailed his efforts enduring a world of constant but resisting change.

In his 90s, Harries started a comical but fact-filled blog called “Been There, Done That. Took Notes.”

It would have made his parents proud. He inherited the civic spirt and creative thinking of his artist mother Eleanor, who served on the Walker Art Center board.

He inherited perseverance from his father, Leo Harris, a Polish Jew who immigrated to Minnesota in 1870, and who would later become a Minneapolis Park Board member and the founder of a company that dredged the Mississippi River locks and Minneapolis lakes.

The second of three sons, Ray created a legacy as a family man, developer and civic enthusiast with a bent for charitable causes.

A celebration of his life will be held on July 17 at 2 p.m. at Temple Israel. It’s a fitting place for a final tribute. Harris worked with the Temple’s Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman to develop a 100-year plan for four parcels of land that sit near the house of worship. Plans include low and hi-rise homes with underground parking, an office tower plus space for the Temple’s commercial and community services.