A century old architectural jewel in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis, burned following the George Floyd protests, has been rehabbed and restored to grandeur under new ownership consisting of three women, one of them an architect.
On Juneteenth, Gov. Tim Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey, City Council members and a jubilant crowd joined with the three news owners, Alicia Belton, Janice Downing and Shanelle Montana to celebrate the reopening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The Classical Revival style building, 2708 East Lake Street, has been vacant since 2020 when the civil unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer saw a number of buildings in the neighborhood torched, including the Minneapolis Police Third Precinct just a block away. That was also Derek Chauvin’s precinct, the man responsible for Mr. Floyd’s death.
After the Coliseum was torched, its tenants left and it was boarded up.
In 2021, Redesign, a south Minneapolis based community development corporation (CDC), purchased the 85,000-square-foot building. A CDC’s mission is usually not to hold on to such properties, but to return them to local ownership and that is how the trio of women came to be a part of the ownership after they invested $1.5 million through a loan from the City of Minneapolis’ Ownership and Opportunity Fund. The OFF’s website says the fund focuses on buildings in “economically challenged areas,” and the interest-free loans are forgivable after 40 years, as long as it is not sold to anyone except qualified heirs. Redesign will be a co-owner with the three women for about seven years when the tax credits used to finance the massive project are satisfied.
Now after almost four years of sitting empty, meticulous renovations, and an investment of $28 million through public and private financing, and some grants, the historical Coliseum is welcoming back the BIPOC and indigenous business owners that were pushed away following the unrest, by providing them with affordable office, coworking and retail space.
Taylor Smrikárova, Redesign’s project manager for the Coliseum, was the first to make formal remarks at the outdoor ribbon-cutting event just outside the renovated building on the corner of Lake Street and 27th Avenue. The backdrop for speakers was an Autozone which had also been razed to the ground during the unrest but was rebuilt with relative speed due to being part of a national chain with massive resources at its disposal, as was a nearby Target store.
“We chose Juneteenth, or June 19, to celebrate the historic Coliseum building because this day celebrates and honors the resilience and cultural legacy of African Americans,” Ms. Smrikárova said. “The restored Coliseum building is yet another reminder of our history, our strength, grit and our power.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he had been looking forward to a day like this where with city financing through tools like the OFF, “Black businesses have the ability not to just own the business but to own the underlying real estate, a right by the way, so many other white business owners have had for so many generations and the ability to own equity.”
When the city approved the OFF funding for the three women co-owners, the Coliseum’s boundaries were in Councilmember Robin Wonsley’s Ward 2, during her first term, before redistricting placed it in Councilmember Jason Chavez’s Ward 9. Speaking to Mshale before the ceremony got underway, a joyful Ms. Wonsley said it was one of her proudest moments to see the renovation come to fruition.
“On the Council side I supported additional funding for what is now known as the Ownership and Opportunity Fund as I have been very invested in the rebuilding of the Longfellow corridor and making sure it honors the history of the uprising that followed George Floyd’s murder, and to be able support community led projects like this is what really makes this job so special,” Councilmember Wonsley said.
In the past, a Denny’s used to occupy a part of the Coliseum’s’ first floor. Co-owner Shanelle Montana told Mshale that she and her husband, Chris Montana, owner of Du Nord Social Spirits just a few blocks away, will be opening a different kind of restaurant in that space.
“It will be a warm and cozy New Orleans style restaurant,” Ms. Montana said.
She said her husband grew up in the area, attending South High School and used to get his haircut in the building.
The other co-owners, Belton and Downing, are also going to be owner-tenants. Belton was the project’s architect and her firm, Urban Design Perspectives, will now have its office at the building, as will Downing’s firm, Commonsense Consulting.
The two spoke to Mshale as they waited for a local TV station crew to setup for an interview after the historic grand opening. Downing said she fell in love with the building when they first visited but could see challenges in restoring it, and only came on board “because I knew Alicia was going to be the architect.”
By Ms. Belton’s account, this was the most challenging project she has ever undertaken as an architect.
In 2022, two years after the civil unrest, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which changed the way Ms. Belton could approach the architectural work involved in restoring it.
“This is actually my first historical tax credit project, so a little bit more involved than my typical adaptive reuse type of projects that we normally do,” said Ms. Belton. “I would say this project made me a better architect because it was really challenging in terms of applying the standards that were required from the State Historical Preservation Office, and when we got on the National Park Registry of Historic Places there was a laundry list of things we had to do, so that is what is different.”
Belton said the historic preservation challenges notwithstanding, it was still a joy to be a part of the project and that being a block away from the Third Precinct “is a daily reminder of why we do the work we do.”
In the many interviews she has given since becoming a co-owner and project architect for the Coliseum’s restoration, which is 107 years old this year and was first built to house the former Freeman’s Department Store, she has reminded folks that the store was one of the first to offer credit to Black people to shop there. The store was located at the building until 1975 when it closed. The building even back then served as an event center and was the venue of many community events, something the restored building will continue to do serving a more diverse audience.
Gov. Walz praised all the partners and stakeholders that made the project possible, and for their vision.
“It truly does take a village, the historic coliseum is a physical manifestation of the resilience of the folks down here, the last four years have been a reckoning in this state, a reckoning of racial inequities, systemic racism. The murder of George Floyd asked us what are we going to do about it, was it going to be written in May of 2020 or was it going to be written going forward, I want to thank everyone here that decided that the future mattered,” Walz said.
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About Tom Gitaa Gitaa, Editor-in-Chief
Born and raised in Kenya's coastal city of Mombasa, Tom is the Founder, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Mshale which has been reporting on the news and culture of African immigrants in the United States since 1995. He has a BA in Business from Metro State University and a Public Leadership Credential from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He was the original host of Talking Drum, the signature current affairs show on the African Broadcasting Network (ABN-America), which was available nationwide in the United States via the Dish Network satellite service. On the show, he interviewed Nobel laureates such as 2004 Nobel Peace prize winner, Professor Wangari Maathai, the first woman from Africa to win the peace prize and heads of states. Tom has served and chaired various boards including Global Minnesota (formerly Minnesota International Center), the sixth largest World Affairs Council in the United States. He has previously served as the first Black President of the Board of Directors at Books for Africa. He also serves on the boards of New Vision Foundation and the Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium. He has previously served two terms on the board of the United Nations Association. An avid runner, he retired from running full marathons after turning 50 and now only focuses on training for half marathons.
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