Brooklyn Center’s Shingle Creek Center is under new ownership. The strip mall, across the street from the Hennepin County Regional Center, now belongs to African Career Education & Resources Inc. (ACER) and the Ignite Business Women Investment Group.
The two entities closed on the $5.2 million purchase of the property on Oct. 13, buying it from BPC Shingle Creek Holdings, a Delaware registered LLC based in Encino, California.
ACER is a Brooklyn Park based nonprofit that works on connecting people of color, especially Black immigrants and refugees, to resources such as affordable housing, employment opportunities and education.
IBWIG came into existence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic when 32 African immigrant women business owners who were facing rent increases, evictions and poor landlord practices came together and formed a Real Estate Investment Cooperative.
According to U.S. Census data, as of July 2022, people who identify themselves as Black or African American make up 31.5% in Brooklyn Center, and 29.8% in neighboring Brooklyn Park, making them the single largest minority group. African immigrants call the two cities “Little Africa.”
“We came together because we believe that, by bridging our businesses, we can create wealth, change lives, and build a larger market audience,” said Jannie Seibure, manager of Cavalla Travel, a member of IBWIG. “This purchase proves that we can do anything, if we stick to it long enough.”
ACER and IBWIG closed on the property in October and have taken possession of the entire strip mall with the exception of where the former Brooklyn Center Target store stands. The empty Target store is under the ownership of the city.
With the newly acquired property, ACER and IBWIG plan to transform the strip mall into a destination hub of small and commercial spaces for the region’s microbusinesses. Businesses and tenants currently housed within the Shingle Creek Center will not be affected.
There are 16 commercial units in the strip mall and only four vacancies and on track to have all of the nearly 40,000 square feet leasable space taken up.
Ms. Denise Butler, associate director of ACER, told Mshale her organization’s offices will move its headquarters from neighboring Brooklyn Park and occupy one of the four vacant spaces at the mall in the spring of 2024. IBWIG will also have a home at the mall.
ACER, which as part of its mission is the provision of technical assistance to BIPOC-owned small and microbusinesses, plans to establish a small business incubation center at the mall once it moves in.
“We know that it’s not enough for our businesses to have access to commercial spaces — we need to have control of those spaces ourselves so we can be the architects of our own economic futures,” Butler 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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