Minneapolis City Council approves year extension for activists to purchase Roof Depot for indoor urban farm

Just one week before the final deadline for East Phillips environmental activists to come up with $11.4 million to buy a city-owned warehouse for their vision of an indoor urban farm, the Minneapolis City Council on Thursday granted the activists a one-year extension to get the funding.

It’s the latest twist in the long fight of East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) to gain control of the former Roof Depot warehouse at E. 28th Street and Longfellow Avenue.

For a decade, neighborhood activists have opposed the city’s plans to build a Public Works yard for water maintenance staff, equipment and diesel vehicles — something that city staff said would benefit Minneapolis as a whole despite concentrating more air pollution in the heavily industrialized, working class East Phillips neighborhood.

Council Member Jason Chavez, who represents East Phillips, and his council predecessor Alondra Cano have long opposed building a municipal maintenance yard in the Ninth Ward, while other council members have waffled on the thorny issue.

On Thursday, Chavez won the unanimous support of his colleagues at the City Council meeting for a resolution to extend the funding deadline to September 2025 for EPNI, which was unlikely to come up with the money by the previous deadline of next week.

“This item today that I am bringing forward is a collaborative effort with the mayor’s administration, City Council, staff and the community I represent to find a viable pathway forward, and it shows what we can do when we all work together,” Chavez said.

“I’m proud of the tenacity of East Phillips neighbors, their persistence on human rights and advocacy for clean air. It’s one of the reasons why Ward Nine continues to be hopeful for the future.”

After years of protests and lawsuits, Minneapolis officials gave up on plans to build a water yard at Roof Depot and agreed to sell EPNI the property, provided the group produced a $3.7 million personal guaranty and the Legislature provided $2 million in 2023 followed by $5.7 million in 2024. The Legislature also has committed $4.5 million to Minneapolis to find a new site for its water yard.

EPNI completed, and the city accepted, the first two components of the original purchase agreement. But the third component was not satisfied because the Legislature failed to approve a bonding bill this year. As a result, EPNI missed the July 15 closing deadline and the city moved to terminate the purchase agreement, triggering a 60-day cure period that would have ended next Friday.

Voting for the one-year extension, Council Member Linea Palmisano begrudgingly congratulated EPNI but said she continued to have concerns about the urban farm project. For years the city has paid millions out of a fund designated for water system improvements with nothing water-related to show for it, she said.

“Right now, us holding the site, there’s no public benefit to the ratepayers of the Water Fund,” Palmisano said. “It is a challenge for our staff to find another site for our city employees. It is also a challenge and a requirement to pay back the Water Fund by selling the site for some type of use. ...

“I’ve been on both sides of these votes, and I’ve spent years hoping the community would live up to its commitments. Today, it seems they’ve met the first barrier.”

Mayor Jacob Frey echoed those sentiments in a statement: “I have serious concerns about the viability of EPNI’s broader development plan. However, an extension of this purchase agreement gives the city the best shot at recouping the taxpayer dollars that have already been spent on this site.”

In a news conference Thursday, EPNI leaders along with Chavez and DFL legislators Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura and Sen. Omar Fateh, both of Minneapolis, acknowledged the pressure the Legislature faces in prioritizing the remaining $5.7 million for Roof Depot next year.

“This moment is a call to action for every entity that cares about this project to step up,” said Sencer-Mura. “We talk a lot about what does a just transition regarding climate change mean, and how do we move from industries and systems that we know are not working for people on the ground to ones that are life-affirming. To me, there is no better example of that than this project.”

Also at the news conference was Ben Jacobson, the philanthropist behind the $3.7 million private guaranty that the city required of EPNI to reach this point. Jacobson had previously communicated only through his lawyer, not wanting to draw attention to himself. But he decided to go public Thursday to underscore his commitment to wealth redistribution via the community ownership model that EPNI is developing for its urban farm concept.

“The way I continue to see it, there would be no better way to invest that $3.7 million than this project,” said Jacobson, a Powderhorn Park resident who inherited his wealth and has been volunteering with EPNI for the past year and a half, helping to pull in other private donors.