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Roof Depot site still in limbo years later
The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute hopes to redevelop south Minneapolis’ vacant Roof Depot warehouse into an urban farm with retail and residential space. However, the group has failed to raise funding that would secure its future. FOX 9’s Babs Santos spoke with neighborhood group members upset by the situation.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - After more than two years of back-and-forth between the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) and city officials over the purchase of the Roof Depot site in Minneapolis, the city says it has declined a reduced-price counteroffer, and it will explore other buyers without funding secured by the group come November.
Minneapolis Roof Depot purchase
What we know:
On Wednesday, Minneapolis Director of the Department of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) Erik Hansen provided an update on behalf of the city, saying it has rejected an EPNI counteroffer of $10.2 million for the vacant site — a $1.2 million decrease from the $11.4 million originally agreed upon.
However, even if the city accepted the new agreement, funding sources for the purchase remain in doubt regardless, Hansen says.
EPNI initially hoped to use three funding sources in the purchase: A $2 million grant from the state of Minnesota, a potential $5.7 million pledge from the Minnesota Legislature and $3.7 million of its own funds.
Two years later, the gift from the Minnesota Legislature hasn't happened, and EPNI is no closer to closing the funding gap, Hansen says.
According to Hansen, the group has since proposed using a $4.5 million 2023 legislature-authorized grant to Minneapolis for a new water yard as its own toward the purchase price.
But that money isn’t theirs, Hansen says, and the taxpayer-funded grant can only be used to reimburse the city for planning costs for its original purpose – the water yard.
What's next:
The city says the EPNI is still either $5.7 million short (of the original agreement) or $4.5 million short (of the rejected counteroffer).
The original purchase agreement is still intact, but has an ultimate deadline of Nov. 15, 2025.
Beyond that point, the city says it will move on and explore other "competitive buyers" for the site.
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Look inside Roof Depot shows bones are strong
Despite the $6.5 million authorized by the legislature to begin the process of turning the vacant Roof Depot warehouse in South Minneapolis into an urban farm with retail and residential space, few people have seen inside the 230,000-square-foot structure in the last decade.
Built to Last
The backstory:
Built in 1949 as a Sears-Roebuck warehouse, the building was reportedly designed to last one hundred years.
FOX 9 previously toured the inside of the now-vacant building in June 2023.
The City of Minneapolis purchased the site in 2016 and wanted to demolish the building as part of a plan to consolidate its Public Works Department, which has facilities scattered around the city.
City officials have previously said the Roof Depot building was "unsalvageable and unsafe" and once called its demolition "non-negotiable" prior to EPNI's proposal.