For years, a small staff of the Indigenous Task Force has provided culturally-based medical, social, wellness, and economic services at the outdated South Minneapolis Community Center. Here, patients sometimes have to stand outside because the waiting room is too small.
Some of our youth and theater programs must be housed in nearby churches. Even with logistical constraints, the group wants to establish a company that manufactures baby food using native American-grown landrace crops and foods grown and harvested using sustainable practices. launched. The plants are cultivated on a few acres of land just south of the Twin Cities by people learning agricultural techniques.
The Task Force’s small hodgepodge workplace will soon be replaced by the Mikwanedun Audisukon Art and Wellness Center. The effort will consolidate and expand existing services, adding theaters, commercial kitchens with cafes for people to sell food, and spaces to revitalize other new businesses.
To support the construction of the new facility, the task force will raise $1 million from Hennepin County’s recently approved $10 million grant effort to 18 mostly minority-focused organizations and nonprofits. Received nearly a dollar. The goal is to promote affordable commercial space and provide locations for entrepreneurs to develop restaurants, event and training centers, offices, and other assets for communities that often face barriers to economic growth. to provide.
Collectively, county-supported projects will create over 400,000 square feet of commercial and nonprofit space, support over 550 local business owners, and employ over 1,000 people. The total cost of the project is more than $270 million, which includes city and state funding in addition to county grants.
“The county has focused on ways to help businesses recover during the pandemic, and this is just an extension of that goal,” said Marion Greene, chair of the county commission. , is a very targeted way to spend pandemic relief money that has a big impact on the community.”
A one-time program called the Community Investment Initiative called for applicants focused on economic recovery strategies for minority entrepreneurs, developers of affordable commercial space, and nonprofits. Proposals were solicited in March, and 46 applications were collected.
Much of the hundreds of millions of dollars of federal pandemic funding Hennepin County has received is being used for COVID-19 issues and short-term business and housing financial relief. The commissioner hoped the initiative would bring about long-term change in cities and specific communities and reduce inequality, said Patricia Fitzgerald, director of community and economic development.
When county staff conducted research and spoke with stakeholders, they found that what they needed most was more affordable commercial space, and those on the front lines of the pandemic and currently struggling financially and with space issues. I was told that I was in support of a non-profit organization that
Ryan Kelly, Program Manager, Community Investment Initiatives, said:
Other ongoing projects
During the application process, the county learned that cities such as Bloomington, St. Louis Park, Brooklyn Center, and Brooklyn Park were already considering projects for minority businesses, commercial spaces, and nonprofits.
Brooklyn Park purchased a vacant lot with the intention of turning it into a business incubator. His $8.5 million project will create 27,000 square feet of commercial space for up to 60 non-food retail and commercial businesses. Areas will be made available to hold meetings, host events and attend trainings, along with business resources and technical assistance, city officials said.
Other projects include developing a 40,000-square-foot commercial and community space with an art library at Juxtaposition Arts in Minneapolis; Kelly said it will include transforming it into a Lake Street retail hub for . Even a gas station he has converted into a space for four businesses.
space to grow
The Native American Task Force, which received $750,000 from the county, moved to E. 23rd Street in 2008. The services it provides are divided into HIV and Hepatitis C case reduction and testing, opioid use prevention, youth activism and employment. Opportunities focused on theater programs. It also manages a 14-unit residential facility for people living with HIV and other problems. The three-story location where task forces congregate includes a basement, main floor, and loft, and staff say there isn’t much room for privacy.
The task force planned the new space just a few years after moving to the existing location, said Mike Neumann, coordinator of the new facility. The city sold a nearby vacant lot to the Task Force for $1, he said. They will break ground on his $10 million project in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis next spring and expect it to be completed within a year.
In addition to the theater, the new facility will feature a commercial kitchen that will serve traditional cuisine, facilitate the growth of the Indigi-Baby Food brand, provide space for new business owners, and add a large clinic and counseling area. Ready, he said.
The new space will give entrepreneurs the opportunity to build wealth that can be passed on to the next generation, Kelly said.
“And as business comes and goes, the space is always there,” he said.
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