When the Minnesota Senate failed to beat the legislative session buzzer to pass a bonding bill at midnight Sunday, it threw a wrench in community plans to take over the long contested Roof Depot building in south Minneapolis.
The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute and its allies won a major victory last year and secured an agreement to buy the former Sears warehouse from the city of Minneapolis, which had planned to turn the site into a public works facility. The group aims to turn the 230,000-square-foot facility into an indoor farm, housing, and commercial spaces for small businesses and community organizations.
Their win was secured with help from the Minnesota Legislature. Lawmakers promised to clear the way for the institute to buy the property while keeping Minnneapolis taxpayers whole by paying Minneapolis $12.2 million for money the city had already invested in the scuttled public works site.
Lawmakers allocated $6.5 million for the project last year, and promised to send an additional $5.7 million to complete the funding in 2024. That didn’t happen. The second pot of money was part of this year’s failed bonding bill.
The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, which secured an additional $3.7 million towards the purchase of the Roof Depot building and site, now faces uncertainty as the July 15 closing date with the city approaches. But the group expressed confidence in its ability to gather the necessary funding.
The city agreed to part with the site for just under $16 million. The institute has $10.2 million between the 2023 legislative funding and its own fundraising. Last year’s agreement between the city, the institute, and legislators required the institute to raise its share of the money to receive the additional $5.7 million. The institute secured that funding and entered a formal purchase agreement with the city in November.
“This will happen,” said Dean Dovolis, the institute’s president. “We still plan to close July 15 and proceed with the project.”
A city spokesperson told Sahan Journal that the city will still honor the deal, but that it needs the full payment by the deadline.
“The City will stand by its purchase agreement with the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) and is hopeful EPNI is able to fulfill the terms of the contract by the July 15 deadline,” city spokesperson Greta Bergstrom said in a statement.
City Council Member Jason Chavez, who represents East Phillips, called the Legislature’s failure to approve the $5.7 million “devastating” in a May 22 email to constituents.
“I’m so sorry to all our residents in East Phillips and south Minneapolis who have to keep on fighting for our dreams and for our community,” Chavez wrote. “I’m looking at all the tools at the City Council’s disposal to help address this issue.”
The institute said in a statement that they are looking for ways to secure the $5.7 million funding gap. Dovolis said that the group is working with community groups, local governments, and investors to get the money in place. Once the bonding bill failed, the institute heard from a number of people scrambling to make the funding work, he said.
“It’s a bigger deal to people than just the building—they just want to see the community get this resource,” Dovolis said.
The project is continuing to solicit businesses and community organizations to rent space in the southern portion of the building. The group is also working to establish a community ownership agreement that will see profits from the project distributed throughout the neighborhood.
The institute was awarded a Department of Energy grant in April to install a massive rooftop solar garden.
