First Independence Bank opens new St. Paul location on University Avenue

First Independence Bank (FIB), a Black-owned financial institution, opened its new St. Paul location June 24 at 627 University Avenue West. The bank aims to invest in underserved communities by helping individuals build capital and communities expand their economic stability.

“We are here to build banks and stewards, to restore trust, to expand homeownership, and to close the racial wealth gap,” said Damon Jenkins, FIB’s senior vice president and Minnesota market president. “We will be unapologetic about that, regardless of who is in the White House.”

FIB, a Minority Depository Institution founded in Detroit in 1970, first came to the Twin Cities in 2022 in its first national expansion. In opening locations at University Avenue and Emerald Street in March 2022 and at 2217 East Lake Street in October 2022, FIB became the first Black-owned full-service bank in the Twin Cities. The Lake Street location remains open, and the University and Emerald branch has relocated to the newly opened site.

The bank’s new location sits in the Frogtown and Rondo neighborhoods. Rondo had a flourishing Black middle class and business district before I-94 split it in half in the 1950s and 1960s. Due in part to the highway, Rondo community members face an intergenerational wealth gap that has cost the neighborhood at least $157 million, according to 2018 data published in Reconnect Rondo’s Past Prosperity Study.

The opening comes as Minnesota continues to grapple with some of the country’s worst racial disparities in homeownership. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the Black homeownership rate in the Twin Cities dropped to 29% in 2024, and the region has the largest gap between Black and white homeownership rates of any comparable metro area in the country. Minnesota Housing’s 2024 Housing Disparities Report confirms that while Minnesota ranks tenth in the nation for overall homeownership, it has the sixth largest disparity between white households and Black, Indigenous and households of color. A gap rooted in decades of redlining and discriminatory lending practices.

FIB aims to address that historic disinvestment by joining forces with community stakeholders, investing dollars with Black business owners and business owners of color, Jenkins said.

Through their relationships with local businesses, community banks can tailor loans and other services to local needs, according to the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. This can make start-up companies more likely to survive, creating jobs in the process.

The new FIB location has worked closely with the Neighborhood Development Center (NDC), an organization that provides training, loans and other resources to support entrepreneurs. FIB and NDC held a speaker series and resource fair for Black Business Week.

Going forward, NDC president and CEO Renay Dossman said people who are not yet ready to open an account at FIB can come to NDC to build their credit and otherwise get themselves bankable, helping them build generational wealth.

The new FIB location shares a building with NDC’s office, which Dossman said already intentionally hosts other Black-owned businesses. She believes adding a bank to the space will be hugely beneficial.

“When we have banking in the building, we remove additional barriers for our entrepreneurs,” Dossman said. “We make it easier for them to ask questions and get access to things they need from people that they trust.

“It sends a message to people in this community that capital and banking is accessible,” Dossman continued. “A lot of the time, people feel like banks aren’t for them. It’s really something special to walk in and see people that look like you. That instantly builds your trust.”

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her’s family once lived in Rondo, just one block from the bank’s new location. The mayor said that her family, after immigrating to the United States, was able to break the cycle of poverty in one generation because of an understanding of markets, finances and investments.

“Access to capital is the only way that we can help, especially our newest Americans, and those who’ve been systemically excluded from participating in financial markets and investments,” Her said. “If you do not have partners who are invested in your communities, if you do not have partners that give people access to capital, we will never be able to break the cycles that we experience.”

First Independence Bank’s new University Avenue location is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For more information, visit www.firstindependence.com/home-twin-cities.

Ella Stern is a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.