Sahan Journal: Minneapolis City Council gives community group an extra year to purchase Roof Depot site
via Sahan Journal, September 5, 2024 by Andrew Hazzard
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.