Financing the Revival of the Coliseum Building

Nonprofit developer Redesign pursued a complex financing structure to redevelop the Minneapolis landmark as a hub for BIPOC businesses

ENTER. By Frank Jossi | June 20, 2024

FEATURE

This article expands on the “Coliseum Comeback” feature in the 2024 ENTER print annual.

After serving as an anchor on East Lake Street in South Minneapolis for more than a century, the Coliseum Building suffered fire damage during the unrest following George Floyd’s murder.

The three-story, 85,000-square-foot former department store survived, but the owners wanted to demolish it before Redesign, Inc., a community development organization with deep roots in the Longfellow area, bought it for $2 million in 2021. The nonprofit then employed a necessarily complex financing plan—no simple options existed—to pay for its $28 million revival.

The Coliseum Building’s grand reopening this week on Juneteenth was the culmination of a collaboration between Taylor Smrikárova, Redesign’s Real Estate Development Director; the project’s architect, Alicia Belton, FAIA, owner of Urban Design Perspectives; Janice Downing, owner of Commonsense Consulting@Work; and Shanelle Montana, owner of the building’s new restaurant and Du Nord cocktail room.