Target wants to be a bigger part of city living, by experimenting with going smaller.

The discount retailer, which has long focused on large stores in suburban markets, completed a lease last week on its smallest store yet, a 20,000-square-foot location in Minneapolis, a test store for a new format called TargetExpress.

The store will be about a fifth the size of Target’s smallest format stores to date, and would allow the company to open more locations in dense urban markets, like New York, where 100,000 square feet is hard to come by.

John D. Griffith, executive vice president for property development at Target, said that as more people, and especially young people, opted to live in cities rather than suburbs, Target wanted to remain convenient.

“Many of them grew up with a Target experience,” Mr. Griffith said. “Now, they show up at their cool little bungalow they’re redoing, they’re five miles from downtown, and yet, Target is a little bit of an effort to get to.”