Building a Stronger Future with Main Street Grants
Family-owned restaurants, neighborhood clinics, and apartment buildings are among the small businesses and development projects that are taking shape with help from state-funded grants administered by the Minneapolis Foundation.
Since 2022, the Foundation and our partners have committed $29.2 million to 74 projects through the Main Street Economic Revitalization program. Month by month, local communities are reaping the returns on this important public investment in Minnesota’s future.
Near Lake Street in South Minneapolis, Hi-Gate Urgent Care for Children now offers pediatric care and specialist referrals for kids of all ages, thanks in part to a Main Street grant that supported the clinic’s construction. “We thought hard about the location of the clinic and designed it with the community’s needs in mind,” said clinic manager Abdiasis Hirsi, who owns the clinic with his wife, Adno Gatah, a nurse practitioner.
Across town, a Main Street grant helped Minuteman Press renovate its North Minneapolis warehouse and complete the buildout of tenant space now occupied by a nonprofit that supports people in recovery. The grant is helping this small business grow while also strengthening its community, said owner Frank Brown. “We can continue to provide union jobs for local residents contributing to North Minneapolis’ economy.”
Established through bipartisan legislation in 2021, the Main Street program was designed to help communities statewide rebound from the economic impact of the pandemic and George Floyd’s murder. The Foundation, in partnership with LISC Twin Cities, Propel Nonprofits, and the Metropolitan Economic Development Association, was chosen by the state to administer Main Street grants in Minneapolis and two northwestern suburbs, Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park.
These grants focus on commercial corridors that were hit hard by the events of 2020—from Lake Street and the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Av. to Franklin Av., the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, and key areas of North Minneapolis. Grantmaking decisions were made with guidance from local stakeholder tables composed of residents, business owners, neighborhood associations, lenders, and nonprofits.
“These grants reflect the priorities of local communities,” said Jo-Anne Stately, our Senior Vice President of Impact. “It’s exciting to see how small businesses and developers are using this funding not only to recover from the challenges of the past few years, but to reimagine what the future can look like.”
Hear more from community leaders and business owners who are leading work fueled by Main Street grants in this 3-minute video:
