From her rough early years in Laos to the streets of St. Paul, emerging developer Gloria Wong has seen more than her share of adversity.
As a young child, Wong emigrated to the United States from war-torn, communist Laos. She later got married and found success in real estate, where she acquired, rehabbed and resold homes in the Twin Cities and purchased a commercial property, known as Century Plaza, on University Avenue in St. Paul.
Wong also established two businesses Heritage Home Health Care and Lifestyle Adult Day Center which employ more than 650 people in Minnesota, according to the city of St. Paul.
Wong’s businesses thrived until the events of Memorial Day 2020, when George Floyd was killed by police across the river in Minneapolis. Lawlessness and turmoil stemming from the murder destroyed her commercial property at 995 University Ave. in St. Paul.
Wong believes she was targeted because of her race. Like Wong, one of the police officers accused in the George Floyd murder was Hmong.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Wong’s start in the business world. In the following interview, Wong talks about her early life in Laos, her career in real estate, and how she set about rebuilding her business in the wake of the May 2020 civil unrest.
Q: Tell us about yourself and how you got started in business.
A: I came to this country as a refugee kid. I was 10 years old when I came to America. There were eight of us, and we could only rent for one bedroom, and some of us would have to sleep on a sofa, on the floor in the bedroom. I came to this country with nothing, escaped communists, saw a lot of death along the road as a kid, 7 years to 8 years old. [My uncle] died in a jungle because he stepped on a landmine.
I was raised by a white mom [in the U.S.]. I wanted to live the American Dream.
In 1993 to 1994, I was just freshly out of college and newly married. I’m really interested in flipping homes with my husband. He is still very capable and very talented when it comes to flipping old junk homes into a [like-new] home. We didn’t have any kids the first seven years, so all we did was flip those homes and renovate them and resell them or rent them after we renovated those very damaged properties.
I started my home care agency because of my grandfather. I wanted the most vulnerable and disabled in their twilight years to be cared for by their family members if they can. And I started the home day care for people who can’t drive, can’t speak the language.
People in the community wanted my help. They will come to me and ask for help; the children are unable to care for them. They will come to me and ask for me to help them get into public housing. And public housing just didn’t take applications anymore because they just don’t have space.
In Minnesota, we lack housing for a lot of people families with children and disabled people. And so I went to the city. I went to the elected officials, telling them my story with my adult day care, with my home care. I think the city of St. Paul truly sees the passion that I have and the mission, that I want to serve my group of people.
Q: In 2016, you acquired the 65,000-square-foot Century Plaza building at 995 University Ave. Tell me about that.
A: Well, both of my business are growing. I needed space for both of the businesses. Century Plaza was owned by one of my husband’s cousins. He owned it for, I think, 20 years. The people [in the building] came to me and asked me, ‘Do you want to buy Sunrise?’ The previous name was Sunrise Plaza. I said, ‘Yes, I would love to.’
There was a nonprofit there, an insurance agency, a little store, restaurant, deli. The previous owner was a Vietnamese person and most of the group inside, or the renters inside, wanted another Hmong owner. So they asked me if I’m interested.
But then, back in 2020 after the death of George Floyd, I got looted and vandalized. It was pretty bad, too. We got shut down by the governor in March [because of the pandemic], March 16 until May 28, and then we were shut down from May 28 until the middle of July before we opened.
It was really hard for my husband and myself. We were shut down from March until May, and then vandalized, looted. We got shut down until July before we could go back to operate the business.
Life is hard. I mean, I didn’t think that I would be able to come this far, because I lost so much money. The pandemic seemed bad enough, but then the looting, the vandalizing. My neighbors from the south and west and east from me, they didn’t get the damage. I felt like because I’m Asian, because [it’s a] women-owned business, I felt like I’ve been targeted.
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Q: How did you bounce back from that? A: We were lucky enough. U.S. Sen. Tina Smith’s office called me in the summer of 2020 and asked if I needed help, I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ I gave my tenants a break, too, because they went through a hard time. I went through a hard time. All our businesses were shut down for four months, four and a half months.
[The office of] Sen. Smith called me and they would be able to give me some loans and that’s how we are able to rebuild and regain what we had lost. We are able to get some help from DEED [Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development].
And then I also got $185,000 to renovate the outside and all the windows. I think it will take us a while to really recover from all the losses.
Q: Talk about Gloryville project, your proposed 87-unit affordable housing development with 25,000 square feet of commercial space on White Bear Avenue in St. Paul. A: My passion is to do something for kids and families and seniors. I also want to create jobs. I know that a lot of [big developers], I honestly don’t think they are interested in the East Side. I want to create jobs in the East Side area.
I’m hoping to put [something like] a Cub Foods, that kind of store [in the development]. I also want to put studios in Gloryville [along with one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom units] so that people who cannot afford that one-bedroom, two-bedroom can be in a studio.
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