The Coliseum, one of few places Blacks could get credit in Minneapolis, reopened on Juneteenth under Black ownership
Mshale. By Tom Gitaa.
A century old architectural jewel in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis, burned following the George Floyd protests, has been rehabbed and restored to grandeur under new ownership consisting of three women, one of them an architect.
On Juneteenth, Gov. Tim Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey, City Council members and a jubilant crowd joined with the three news owners, Alicia Belton, Janice Downing and Shanelle Montana to celebrate the reopening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The Classical Revival style building, 2708 East Lake Street, has been vacant since 2020 when the civil unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer saw a number of buildings in the neighborhood torched, including the Minneapolis Police Third Precinct just a block away. That was also Derek Chauvin’s precinct, the man responsible for Mr. Floyd’s death.