KSTP: Roof Depot sale ‘done deal,’ neighborhood organizers say

Via KSTP by Renée Cooper, November 12, 2023

Leaders in the East Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis say their long-fought-for plan to buy the former Roof Depot site to turn it into a community-run urban farm and affordable housing complex is a “done deal.”

Millions of dollars still need to be paid to the City of Minneapolis before the property sale can go through, but the remaining transactions are largely a formality, according to Chairman and Executive Director Dean Dovolis of organizing group East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) and former Minnesota Representative and long-time East Phillips resident Karen Clark.

Clark — who represented the neighborhood from the Minnesota Capitol when the debate over the future of the site began about a decade ago — was “thrilled” and “grateful too” for the completion of a grassroots community fundraiser. EPNI pulled together $3.7 million to put toward buying the property.

“It just shows, I think, that democracy can work, that people can organize and stand up, and win in some cases,” she said on Sunday.

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MPR: Neighborhood group secures funding for Roof Depot site