Locally owned grocery store to open in former north Minneapolis Aldi building

An oasis will soon spring up in the north Minneapolis food desert.

A local businessman announced Tuesday he’ll open a grocery store in the shuttered building where Aldi operated until it closed last year at the intersection of Penn and Lowry avenues.

Business owner Daniel Hernandez and developer Wellington Management are eyeing a December opening for the Colonial Market, which was announced to cheers from Mayor Jacob Frey and City Council members representing the area.

Hernandez said the store will be modeled after an existing store at 2750 Nicollet Av. S.: a supermercado with a butcher counter serving locally sourced meat, a fast-food taco-and-burger restaurant and an ice cream shop under one roof.

Hernandez said he also owns La Casa Market at 3733 Nicollet Av. S. and Fusion Pancake House at 5001 34th Av. S. He also plans to open another Colonial Market at the Hi-Lake Shopping Center near Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue, also a former Aldi.

When Aldi announced in February 2023 that it was closing the store at 3120 Penn Av. N. after 15 years, the news was met with sorrow from the community. The nearest grocery stores, Cub and North Market, are 2 miles away, and many working- and lower-class residents of the area faced the prospect of taking a bus to feed their families.

“This is a community that deserves and needs a lot of grocery stores, and we have historically not had it,” Council Member Jeremiah Ellison said, adding later: “We deserve it.”

Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw, who represents the surrounding neighborhoods with Ellison, said she plans to “walk or bike” to the new grocery store.

As soon as Aldi closed, Vetaw said, community leaders began discussions to find a replacement. David Wellington, CEO of Wellington Management, which owns the property, said he was confident the site, which was constructed for Aldi and includes a parking lot, was an “excellent opportunity” for a new grocery store.

Hernandez, 40, who emigrated from Mexico to Minneapolis when he was 16, was excited at the prospect that some businesses might shy away from over concerns of crime and poverty.

“When everybody leaves a place like Minneapolis ... my people — Latino people — are in Minneapolis,” Hernandez said. “This is my heart, my city. There are people who talk, and there’s people who do. I’m the one that do, and this is what we’re doing: Colonial Market in north Minneapolis.”