Minneapolis City Council gives community group an extra year to purchase Roof Depot site

The Minneapolis City Council on Thursday extended the deadline for a community group to complete the purchase of the long-contested Roof Depot site in the East Phillips neighborhood.

The extension gives the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute an extra year to complete the site purchase, moving the deadline from September 13, 2024, to September 2025. The nonprofit institute must fill a $5.7 million gap created when Minnesota legislators failed to keep their end of a bargain struck in May 2023 to allow the community group to buy the building.

The deal will allow the group another chance to secure the promised funding from the Legislature this spring, and will give them additional time to raise the money if lawmakers don’t award the $5.7 million during the 2025 session.

Council Member Jason Chavez, who represents East Phillips and grew up in the neighborhood, said the extension is a collaborative effort between the council, Mayor Jacob Frey’s office and the institute. He said the project comes at a positive turning point for his community, after the closure of longtime polluting facilities Smith Foundry and Bituminous Roadways.

“My residents and Phillips neighbors are one step closer to realizing their dream,” Chavez said.

East Phillips neighbors fought city hall for a decade to obtain the Roof Depot, a former Sears warehouse at East 28th Street and Longfellow Avenue. The city had planned to use the site to expand its public works campus and for a new water yard. The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute plans to convert the building into an indoor urban farm, local business and organization hub and affordable housing.

In February 2023, mass protests prevented the city from moving forward with the building’s scheduled demolition, allowing the institute to obtain a temporary injunction from a Hennepin County District Court judge that halted demolition plans. In May, state legislators from Minneapolis helped craft a $15.9 million deal with the institute and city that would allow the nonprofit to buy the site with $12.2 million in funding from the state.

The deal allocated state funding over two years to help the city plan a new public works site. Legislators included $6.5 million in the 2023 bonding bill for the project, and promised $5.7 million more in 2024 if the institute could raise $3.7 million.

The institute demonstrated in November 2023 that it had secured its share of funds to enter a purchase agreement with the city, but legislators missed a midnight deadline on the final day of the 2024 session and never sent their second batch of funding.

That left the institute scrambling to fill the gap. In August, the group held a press conference with Chavez laying out a vision for the city and Hennepin County to split the outstanding costs.

Now, the plan is for the institute to get another crack at getting the money from the state, though Chavez said Thursday that he hopes the city and county will support the project as it moves forward.

The City Council unanimously approved the extension, with several members thanking Chavez for his work on the issue and holding up the project as a new model for listening to and coordinating with historically marginalized neighborhoods.

“To me, this is how government is supposed to work,” said Council President Elliott Payne.

Council Member Linea Palmisano voted to approve the extension, but emphasized the need to repay the city’s water fund and ensure that the site brings benefits for the public. The mayor echoed her sentiment in a statement after the vote.

“I have serious concerns about the viability of EPNI’s broader development plan. However, an extension of this purchase agreement gives the city the best shot at recouping the taxpayer dollars that have already been spent on this site,” Frey said.

The institute continues to hold public meetings to gather input with residents, solicit business and local organizations to fill the space, and apply for grants. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the group a grant in April to plan a rooftop community solar garden on the building.

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