Nearby business owners plead for redevelopment of blighted Seven Corners block in Minneapolis

Boarded windows and abandoned store fronts line a portion of Washington Avenue S. in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.

Just a few years ago, the buildings housing Bullwinkle’s Saloon, Jewel of India and Love Power Church attracted droves of college students and passersby to the Seven Corners area. But after the owner failed to maintain the buildings and pay utility bills, the city of Minneapolis condemned half of that 1400 block, a mixed-use development of apartments and retail, in June 2023. Now it’s up for sale and packaged for redevelopment.

Local commercial real estate agency Rokos Advisors highlighted the 1.16-acre plot’s proximity to the University of Minnesota’s West Bank campus and touted the current owner’s flexibility on deal structures. Current owners Raj Singh and father Surinder Singh declined to comment on both the redevelopment prospects and the buildings’ condition.

The row has been vacant for more than a year, and neighboring business owners are eager for change.

“The block is under such disrepair,” said William Murray, who owns the Corner Bar across the street from Bullwinkle’s.

Murray has owned the bar for 22 years and said he urgently wants the block’s redevelopment. He expressed concerns about the buildings’ current management, which he said has impacted his business.

“When people have to walk by this condemned, graffitied block, they don’t want to come,” Murray said. “It poses a safety hazard. In the three or four years that this block was really hampering my business, I had to start closing earlier, and I have never really gotten my late-night crowd back.”

In 2022, Bullwinkle’s Saloon was the site of a shooting that killed one person and left several others wounded. In 2018, a man who was “blackout drunk,” according to the Hennepin County judge who sentenced him, shot and killed another man in the Bullwinkle’s parking lot.

“It was scary, and it affects business negatively,” said Corner Bar manager Doug Schauwitzer. “There is chaos that follows and bad press that goes along with being adjacent to that building.”

Dan Korbmacher, the director of operations at neighboring Town Hall Brewery, also hopes to see the neighborhood revamped. He said prior to the condemnation, there was more foot traffic, though “not always in the best of ways.”

“Since the condemnation, some of the safety issues in the area have disappeared,” Korbmacher said. “On an optics level, they haven’t, though. You see a whole city block that is boarded up and deteriorating, and you are going to think you are not in a great neighborhood.”

Both Korbmacher and Murray worry the redevelopment project could take years.

Ward 6 City Council Member Jamal Osman, who serves the Seven Corners neighborhood, said in a statement he supports redevelopment of the neighborhood but did not specify a timeline.

“The Seven Corners redevelopment should include a blend of retail and student residential spaces, leveraging its proximity to the metro green line,” Osman said. “The Seven Corners neighborhood should focus on destination mixed use, combining commercial retail, office and affordable housing uses. This redevelopment should aim to [create] a vibrant, sustainable community.”