$850,000 in Subsidies Spur Redevelopment on North Side

MINNEAPOLIS-Four renovation projects on the troubled North Side recently landed a total of $850,000 in public subsidies from the City of Minneapolis, spurring development activity totaling some $2.6 million.

The Northside Partnership was created this year to address economic hardships in two of the city’s poorest areas and then was later expanded to include 13 neighborhoods on the North Side. The award money comes mostly out of the city’s Empowerment Zone funding.

The awards include:

• Juxtaposition Arts, an organization that provides art programs, won $150,000 in public funding that will go to a $665,000 renovation of a former tavern at 2007 Emerson Ave. N. that will be the organization’s new home.

• $250,000 to Robert Fern Development, a local development firm, as part of a $542,000 renovation of a building at 929 W. Broadway Ave., a boarded up building that will house new businesses.

• $350,000 to the Broadway Plaza project as part of a $1.3-million renovation of about 18,000 sf of space into office, retail and restaurant space in an historic building on the southwest corner at West Broadway and Emerson avenues. The developer and building owner is a long-time West Broadway businessman named Phil Greenberg.

• $100,000 to El-Amin Enterprises to do a $200,000 renovation project of the Fish House at 2221 W. Broadway Ave. The restaurant wants to expand into the half of its building that is boarded and vacant.