What is going to happen to the Roof Depot?

BY DANIEL COLTEN SCHMIDT

Mayor Jacob Frey controls the futureof the Roof Depot site, and the East Phillips Urban Farm vision depends on whether he decides to allow the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) to build or not. After three months of requesting a meeting, EPNI has finally commenced good faith discussions with the Mayor, but not until after the expiration of our Purchase Agreement. I will not discuss those conversations, but I do want to respond to some negative comments about the project, gathered from a Reddit thread:

Since purchasing the Roof Depot in 2016, the City has spent nearly $20 million onthe Hiawatha Expansion Project, despite 99.8% of public commenters expressing disapproval of the City’s plan. East Phillips residents and EPNI are not to blame for the misuse of taxpayer funds. The City stubbornly refused to listen to its constituents. Holding East Phillips responsible to repay those funds is against the City’s own policies on environmental justice and public participation.

The City purchased the Roof Depot in 2016 for $7.1 million under the threat of eminent domain. They knew from the beginning they were forcing an unwanted project upon East Phillips residents. By 2021, the City had incurred $12.9 million in expenses towards designing a three-story, 888-stall parking garage. In 2021, during the public comment period, 1,063 commenters expressed disapproval of the City’s plan; while only two commenters expressed approval. The City’s approval rating for their project was 0.2%, almost unbelievably low. By the spring of 2023, despite increasing public pressure and civil litigation, the City had spent $16.7 million on their disastrous project.

As of Sept. 10, 2025, the City has spent $19.1 million, or more than $2.4 million since the end of the 2023 legislative session.

So, yes, taxpayers are footing the bill, but not because of EPNI’s project: it’s because of the City’s refusal to respond to the needs of their constituents.

Amidst intense public pressure and civil litigation, the Mayor offered EPNI a deal on May 16, only six days before the end of the 2023 Minnesota legislative session: “City leadership will support the sale of the Roof Depot site for an East Phillips Indoor Farm vision if the following conditions are met: Pay back City of Minneapolis Water Fund for the full $16.7 million amount already used to purchase and maintain the former Roof Depot site…”

The Mayor outlined four sources of funding required for the sale: a $4.5 million grant from the State for a new water yard elsewhere; $2.0 million from the State in earnest money; $3.7 million from EPNI; and a final $5.7 million from the State to be granted in 2024.

The Minneapolis Delegation appropriated $6.5  million in 2023, and within four months, EPNI raised the required $3.7 million from private sources—a total of $10.2 million. The $5.7 million was never supposed to be raised by EPNI. In fact, the 2023 Purchase Agreement reads, “Five Million Seven Hundred Thousand and 00/100 Dollars (U.S. $5,700,000.00) from the State of Minnesota on behalf of Buyer to the City”

Additionally, when EPNI’s lender, Sunrise Banks, contracted an appraisal on the building, the third-party appraisers found its fair market value to be $3.7 million – almost three times less than what EPNI had already raised for the purchase.

In addition to the $10.2 million that EPNI raised in site acquisition capital; EPNI has also raised $2.3 million in operations and program funding from philanthropic sources. This funding has allowed EPNI to host monthly cultural workshops, engage thousands of neighbors, distribute free food to the community, complete environmental site assessments, and begin designing the Urban Farm.

EPNI intends to raise additional capital for development from various public sources such as the Transit Oriented Communities grant, the Livable Communities Demonstration Account Grant, the Environmental__Response Fund, and others, as well as  private sources such as the Bush Foundation’s Community Innovation Grant, and the McKnight Foundation’s Vibrant and Equitable Communities grant.

EPNI has also incorporated the Sustainable Communities Investment Fund (SCIF)- a public benefit corporation governed like a cooperative that is an integral part of the long-term viability and community stewardship of the building. This Fund’s purpose is to provide an accessible, sustainability-oriented opportunity for investment in community-driven projects that center community governance and promote economic justice. Through democratic governance, and non-extractive repayment terms, the SCIF is an integral piece to the project’s novel community ownership model.

The Mayor has made it clear that he can make it easy for developers he likes, and hard for those he dislikes: it appears that people-powered movements are not to Frey’s liking. For ten years, East Phillips has not given up their vision to build a community owned climate resiliency center in the heart of the Arsenic Triangle, and they have not stopped defending the land, air, water and community. EPNI has the monumental responsibility to carry the community’s vision forward.

In the words of our Executive Director, Joe Vital, “We’ve been in worse positions before; and we’ve never been stronger.”