The team behind the Roof Depot project in south Minneapolis is asking for local governments to fill the $5.7 million funding gap created when state lawmakers failed to pass a bonding bill to help purchase the property.
The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, a nonprofit organization aiming to convert an old Sears warehouse into an urban farm, housing and community hub, is counting on support from Minneapolis and Hennepin County leaders to help fill the funding gap needed to complete the purchase agreement by September 13.
“We’re going to make sure we get this project done,” said City Council Member Jason Chavez, who grew up in East Phillips and represents the area.
Chavez said at an institute press conference Tuesday afternoon that the plan is to secure the funding through a partnership between city government and the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners.
The pathway to get that work done in the coming weeks remains unclear, but Chavez said he may propose a funding allocation through the city’s business, housing and zoning committee at the end of August. If the committee approves the allocation, it could be approved by the full City Council on September 5. Chavez said he is confident that an agreement could be reached.
The institute and its allies secured an agreement to buy the warehouse from the city of Minneapolis after a fight that lasted years in court and public protests. The city originally wanted to turn the site into a public works facility, which some local activists feared would introduce more pollution from diesel work trucks into a neighborhood that has been historically impacted by industry.
The agreement was secured with help from the Minnesota Legislature. Lawmakers promised to clear the way for the institute to buy the property by using state funds to pay Minneapolis $12.2 million, covering most of what 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 in 2024 to complete the funding. That didn’t happen. The second pot of money was part of this year’s bonding bill, which lawmakers narrowly failed to pass by missing a midnight deadline on the final day of the legislative session.
In November 2023, the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute secured $3.7 million in financing towards the purchase of the Roof Depot building and site to fulfill its end of the bargain with the city and state lawmakers. But with the promised money not coming through this year, the group did not have the funding to complete the deal by a July 15 purchase agreement deadline.
The missed deadline triggered a contract termination process with the city, Erik Hansen, the director of community planning and economic development said last month. That process established a 60-day window for the institute to complete the purchase, which expires September 13.
Hennepin County has been working on ways to support the project after legislative funding failed to come through, according to a policy aide for County Commissioner Angela Conley, whose district includes the Roof Depot building.
South Minneapolis residents fought for the project for nearly a decade, and see it as a beacon of environmental justice in an area known for poor air and soil quality.
East Phillips has a long history of industrial pollution, including an old arsenic factory adjacent to the warehouse that resulted in most of the neighborhood being declared a federal superfund site. Smith Foundry, which is located across the street from the site, announced it will close this month after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found last year that the metal foundry violated the Clean Air Act several times over multiple years.
The institute is continuing to pursue grants from the federal government and philanthropic groups, according to its financial director, Daniel Colten-Schmidt. The group has secured about $6 million in pending grants to help develop the project if it’s able to first purchase the building, he said.
The U.S. Department of Energy in April awarded the institute and solar firm Cooperative Energy Futures a $100,00 grant to plan a 4-megawatt rooftop solar garden that will help power the building and serve as a community solar garden for the surrounding neighborhood. The project is eligible for a second round of grant funding this year.
“We are really, really excited and confident that not only are we going to purchase the building in September, but that we’re going to dive right into developing the building,” Colten-Schmidt said.
Community outreach director Sean Lim said the institute has been holding monthly meetings in the community about different aspects of the project. The group has also been hosting community urban farming educational sessions.
