The Minnesota legislative session wrapped up last Monday with a historic set of new policies and record-breaking funding allocations, including millions of dollars to support businesses and nonprofits in the Lake Street corridor. We applaud Representative Hodan Hassan and Senator Zaynab Mohamed for their leadership in advocating for our resilient community. 

One of the most significant pieces of newly passed legislation is the Economic Development Finance and Policy bill, which will bolster the economic recovery needs of under-resourced businesses across Minneapolis and Saint Paul. This legislation’s investment of over $100 million in direct support for small businesses in the metropolitan area through grants and loans will help many Lake Street businesses thrive in the coming years. 

We are especially thankful to Representative Aisha Gomez for the continued support of Lake Street by including an $8 million allocation in the Tax Finance and Policy bill. This allocation is for a grant to the City of Minneapolis to invest in Lake Street’s recovery, including support for marketing, placemaking, public art, and general corridor promotion. This represents a significant opportunity to continue the kind of grant and forgivable loan options that have been the hallmark of the We Love Lake Street program. We hope to work closely with the City of Minneapolis to make this investment as far-reaching and impactful as possible.

While these allocations are exciting news for the Lake Street corridor, it will take months before Lake Street's small businesses receive these grants, loans, and direct support. Our priority has always been and will continue to be ensuring that access to these funds is done simply and equitably. 

Our biggest disappointment this session was seeing a lack of debt-free financing solutions made available for redevelopment projects along corridors that were heavily damaged in the civil unrest of 2020.  On Lake Street alone, over 40 significant redevelopment projects are anticipated in the next 2 years – and ten of them need over 90 million dollars in public subsidy to move forward.

The Lake Street Council looks forward to working with lawmakers next session to fill the many remaining gaps and ensure that our small, locally-owned businesses and nonprofit organizations have the resources needed to successfully rebuild and recover along our historic and vibrant Lake Street.

See detailed information about this year’s legislation below.

Economic Development Finance and Policy (SF3035)

This bill invests over $100 million toward direct support for small businesses in the Twin Cities metropolitan area through grants and loans. The “Providing Resources and Opportunity and Maximizing​ Investments in Striving Entrepreneurs (PROMISE) Act” within the bill outlines specific areas of support: 

• Grants of $10,000 - $50,000 to businesses with annual revenues under $750,000 or less, based on 2021 taxes. These grants can be used for everyday business expenses like payroll, rent or mortgage payments, utility bills, and more as small businesses continue to recover and rebuild. There is a total of $26 million available to fund businesses located in South Minneapolis, to be distributed across 5 different commercial corridors, including Lake Street. These funds will be administered by the Neighborhood Development Center. 

• A new loan program to provide funding for “development, redevelopment, demolition, site preparation,​ predesign, design, engineering, repair, land acquisition, relocation, or renovation of real​ property or capital improvements.” These loans would be capped at $1 million, with an interest rate of no more than 3%. Eligible recipients of this program must have a gross annual revenue of less than $1 million based on 2021 taxes and be located​ in “a community that has been adversely affected by structural racial discrimination, civil​ unrest, and lack of access to capital.” A total of $9 million is available to businesses in South Minneapolis, and like the grant program, will be divided among 5 different corridors. These loans would be administered by the Metropolitan Economic Development Association. 

In addition to the funds from the PROMISE Act, SF3035 also made the following allocations for new and existing statewide programs: 

• $5 million for an Emerging Developer Fund Program that would support individuals who have been historically underfunded and excluded from pursuing a career in the property development field. These funds will be administered by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation. 

• $12.85 million over the next two years and an ongoing $5.45 million in funding for the Small Business Assistance Partnership Program, which is a competitive grant program through the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) that supports small business technical assistance providers like the Lake Street Council, Latino Economic Development Program, Seward Redesign, Inc., and the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers.  

• $3 million for a Community Wealth Building Pilot Program. This is a new program that is intended to support commercial land trusts, worker cooperatives, and other employee-owned businesses. The Metropolitan Economic Development Association will administer this new initiative,  intended to provide low-interest loans to community businesses. 

• $10 million for a Minnesota Expanding Opportunity Fund Program. This is a new revolving low-interest loan program that will provide additional capital to economic development nonprofits and CDFIs to increase lending to small businesses. 

Finally, a few redevelopment projects along the Lake Street corridor also received funding through the state’s main bonding, or public infrastructure, bill. These projects include:

• $3.5 million for the CLUES Latino Outreach Center to acquire part of the former U.S. Bank property at 2800 E Lake St. and develop a new Economic Opportunity and Wellness Hub. 

• $500,000 for the Division of Indian Work to expand their existing facility at Lake Street and 10th Ave.

• $3 million for the nonprofit Isuroon to renovate their current location at Lake Street and 16th Ave. 

• $3.9 million for the Somali Museum for the predesign​ and design processes of a new facility.

• $300,000 for Pangea World Theater for predevelopment support to explore the option of building a new theater next to Moon Palace Books on Minnehaha Ave. 

Lastly, several other important issues that impact Lake Street - like affordable housing, public safety, and sustainability - also received significant sources of new funding. We plan to advocate that some of these investments have a positive impact on the corridor. This includes: 

• $1 billion for Affordable housing and a 0.25% percent metro area sales tax increase to fund affordable housing.

• Funding for renewable energy and weatherization improvements to provide 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. 

• An estimated $20 million to the City of Minneapolis for public safety with several flexible uses.