Minneapolis, MN
Vacant no more: Artists, creatives move into empty storefronts for new Minneapolis initiative
The city of Minneapolis announced the first awardees of its Vibrant Storefronts Initiative. The city’s pilot program subsidizes the rent of formerly vacant storefronts downtown for artists and arts organizations.
The awardees include Black Business Enterprises, Twin Cities Pride, Skntones creative agency, Blackbird Revolt design studio and Flavor World arts and entertainment company. The city’s Arts and Cultural Affairs department chose the awardees from 43 applicants.
“They selected the brightest and most talented people that we have in the city to fill these spaces with creativity,” said Mayor Jacob Frey in a press conference at one of the formerly vacant storefronts at 1128 Harmon Place.
“The whole idea is that it’s not just any creativity. It’s edgy. It puts you on the edge of your seat a little bit. It challenges our perspective. It requires us to all think outside the box, and it’s livening up an area.”
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The five arts and culture organizations will occupy spaces within a few blocks of each other near Loring Park in the city’s effort to create a cultural hub. The city reports that the initiative will distribute $224,202 “to foster creativity, enhance vibrancy, and promote sustainability in Minneapolis.”
“This program was meant to not only address the the lack of vibrancy in the storefronts, but also address the affordable space crisis that are facing artists in our community, and so we’re trying to combine and solve both of those through this initiative,” said Ben Johnson, arts and cultural affairs director.
Blackbird Revolt owner and founder, University of Minnesota associate design professor Terresa Moses, said the initiative would help the studio fulfill its dreams and help revitalize downtown.
“What that includes is us working together to intersect design, animation, video, photography with black liberation, with abolition, with justice, with the things that we find are important, lifting up our voices and our narrative,” Moses told the crowd. Blackbird Revolt will occupy 1128 Harmon Place.
Twin Cities Pride executive director Andi Otti said it was an opportunity for the longstanding organization to deepen its roots. Otti announced the creation of the new Pride Cultural Arts Center (PCAC) at 1201 Harmon Place, just blocks away from where the Twin Cities Pride Festival takes place at Loring Park every June.
“By creating a physical location and a cultural hub for the community connection and growth, the PCAC will serve as a dynamic platform for expression, education and support,” Otti said. “It will be a safe, welcoming and vibrant environment where community members and our allies can celebrate arts and culture.”
Nancy Korsah is the founder of Black Business Enterprises (BBE), a business-to-business service provider that provides guidance to entrepreneurs. The goal is to turn the BBE storefront at 1128 Harmon Place into an art activation hub.
“We want to make sure that you understand that art is not dead,” Korsah said. “We are here to bring the neighborhood back alive, and we’re going to work together, all of us, to ensure that we can create spaces for artists to really express themselves and to showcase the incredible talent that is Minneapolis.”
The storefront leases will run for two years. Current awardees will have the option to renew.
“These neighborhoods and these buildings have been vacant for a long time,” said Minneapolis Council member Katie Cashman. “So, I’m really happy that the city this year decided to invest in artists as a strategy to fill vibrant storefronts.”
The city’s Arts and Cultural Affairs department hopes to expand the program in 2025.
Minneapolis, MN
North Minneapolis shooting injures 2 near Logan Avenue
A shooting in north Minneapolis injured two men on Friday night.
Minneapolis police said officers responded around 9:30 p.m. Friday after multiple reports of gunfire near Lowry Avenue North and North Logan Avenue.Police said they found two men with gunshot wounds outside a home.
Officers said both men were outside when the gunfire started and a nearby hospital treated both men for non-life-threatening injuries.
Police are still investigating. Officers said no arrests have been made.
This is a developing story; check back for updates.
Minneapolis, MN
Man, 19, hospitalized after shooting in north Minneapolis; no arrests
A 19-year-old man is injured after a shooting in north Minneapolis on Friday, according to police.
Officers responded to the incident on the 2600 block of North Humboldt Avenue at 5:03 p.m. Officials said they found the man inside a home with apparent gunshot wounds that were not life-threatening.
The officers provided medical aid before the man was taken to the hospital, police said.
According to investigators, the man was outside the home when shots were fired and ran inside after he was injured.
Police said Friday night that no arrests had been made and that they were working to learn what led to the shooting.
Minneapolis, MN
Affordable senior housing revived at 600 Main St. SE
The Blueprint
A team led by Lupe Development Partners and Wall Cos. wants to bring more than 100 units of affordable senior housing to a triangular parking area near the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, the latest version of a yearslong effort to redevelop the site.
On Thursday, the Minneapolis Planning Commission Committee of the Whole reviewed plans for the five-story, 104-unit building at 600 Main St. SE. The project would require a comprehensive plan amendment, rezoning and other approvals.
Jess Olstad, a city spokesperson, said in an email that the committee took no formal action.
“The next step for the project team will be to conduct public engagement around their potential comprehensive plan amendment, and to prepare their land use applications for submittal,” Olstad said.
Steve Minn, vice president and chief financial manager of Lupe Development, said Friday that the project received “very positive feedback” from the committee.
“We’re just going to proceed with the rest of our application, which will be in the next week or so,” said Minn, who added that the proposed location is a “perfect site for housing” and that “senior housing is a need.”
A comprehensive plan amendment would require Metropolitan Council review. If the approval process goes well and financing comes together next year, the project could break ground in 2028, Minn said.
A 58-space “principal parking facility” currently occupies the 37,401-square-foot development site, which is framed by Sixth Avenue Southeast, Main Street Southeast, and a railroad property, according to a city staff report.
The project would primarily offer one-bedroom units, though the mix would also include some two-bedroom dwellings and efficiencies. Thirty-nine stalls of underground parking are also planned.
Located near the Stone Arch Bridge trailhead in the Mississippi River Critical Area Overlay District, the project would be “compatible with the surrounding neighborhood architecture,” according to a narrative submitted on behalf of the developer.
The plan includes site improvements such as structured parking and pedestrian spaces, and a new public trail, which would connect to existing Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board trails in Father Hennepin Bluffs Park.
According to the developer’s narrative, the project “represents a reinvestment in a privately owned, undeveloped parcel that is not used for park purposes and is not planned for acquisition.”
The project would align the property’s “land use, built form, and Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area Overlay District designations with the surrounding urban context and applicable regulatory framework,” the narrative states.
Wall Cos. and Lupe Development Partners, doing business as Bluff Street Development, have long wanted to redevelop 600 Main St. SE. In 2023, the developers pitched a plan for 80 affordable housing units on the site.
The developers’ history with the site goes back as far as 2009, when they proposed separate plans for a 98-unit and a 79-unit apartment project, as previously reported. In 2010, Bluff Street sued the city after the City Council rejected the plans. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2011.
When development efforts first started, the Mississippi River Critical Corridor Area rules and regulations had not been defined, and “there was a lot of angst in the community” about what those regulations would be, Minn said.
Those regulations are now “well defined,” clearing the way for development, he said.
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