Opportunity Crossing opens on site of Wells Fargo branch burned in 2020 uprising

A new apartment complex is now leasing in South Minneapolis on the site of the former Wells Fargo branch at 3030 Nicollet Ave., which burned down during the civil uprising following the murder of George Floyd.

A ribbon cutting was held Thursday, July 9, for the grand opening of Opportunity Crossing. The 13,700-square-foot complex will feature 110 units, ranging from studios to four-bedroom apartments, including 12 affordable homes set aside for adults exiting homelessness. The development is available to prospective residents who make no more than 50% of the Minneapolis area median income.

Karla Henderson, president and CEO of Project Pride in Living, said the project carries added weight for a neighborhood still processing the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good just blocks away.

“What we saw with our PR firm is that ICE would gather in the parking lot at the post office, and then the residents would come out with their whistles, and then the media would show up,” Henderson said. “There would be our brand new building on TV, empty.”

“So what emerged is not simply a new development, but a reflection of what is possible when community voice, public leadership, philanthropy and private sector investment come together around a shared purpose,” Henderson said.

Dr. Nettrice Gast’s multi-story mural towers above a ground-level patio and courtyard. The Afrofuturist artwork depicts an overlapping, diverse group of community members looking upward and forward.

Damaris Melo-Gyasi, owner and principal architect at Design by Melo, said the project was shaped less by a typical schedule, budget and materials list and more by active civic engagement.

“This building carries more than function. It carries trust, it carries dignity, and it carries the strong sense of belonging you hear about when you talk to residents here,” Melo-Gyasi said. “It’s proof of what happens when you listen first and design second, when you design with communities instead of for them, and when you treat lived experience as expertise, too.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey credited Henderson as a “galvanizing force,” crediting her leadership with bringing together the local, state and federal partnerships needed to get Opportunity Crossing built.

“She brought together partners in the state, like our incredible Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, our Commissioner Marion Greene, our Congresswoman Ilhan Omar,” Frey said. “You need partners like this to make these projects come to fruition. I saw our former council member and council president Andrea Jenkins, who’s also in the audience.”

Frey emphasized that the city’s $34 million investment in the project also allowed BIPOC entrepreneurs to own property rather than be priced out by rising rents.

“They could have stopped there, but they didn’t,” Frey said. “To have commercial spaces open not to tenants, but to owners, gives business owners the ability to run with a great idea, become an entrepreneur, and reap the benefit of the work they put in, in equity. Not just equity in the social justice sense.”

Ameriprise Financial invested $4 million in the project five years ago to help anchor the affordable housing development. Aaron Kalosis, vice president and chief operations officer at Ameriprise Financial, said flexible, long-term capital helped make Opportunity Crossing, and its 110 units of affordable housing, possible.

Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan touted the state’s $40 million investment in the Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program, part of an effort that has helped 100,000 Minnesotans obtain emergency housing assistance and expanded homeownership opportunities for tens of thousands of first-time buyers through partnerships with tribal nations.

“I’m more happy to be here as a kid who grew up on the merchants, as a kid who needed that Section 8 housing voucher to pay the rent. That is what is deeply meaningful to me,” Flanagan said. “Opportunity Crossing reflects what we’ve worked toward through our entire administration.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar said Opportunity Crossing serves as a model that goes beyond a basic public works project.

“We don’t just see the kind of infrastructure and the kind of communities that used to exist being rebuilt. What we see is communities transformed,” Omar said. “What we see is hearts changed, and what we see is a thoughtfulness to the kind of environments we are building for the future.”

Hennepin County’s Affordable Housing Development Accelerator program contributed nearly $7 million to the project. Commissioner Marion Greene called the investment a premier example of resilient, community-driven development.

“This blend of community-rooted commercial ownership and affordable housing is the kind of equitable development that residents have been calling for,” Greene said. “This is pandemic-era funding focused on rebuilding a more resilient and affordable housing ecosystem by investing heavily in areas impacted by civil unrest and in projects led by BIPOC teams.”

For more information, visit www.ppl-inc.org/opportunity-crossing.

Clint Combs is a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. He welcomes reader responses at combs0284@gmail.com.