E. Lake St. rebuilding after George Floyd

The south Minneapolis intersection of East Lake Street and Minnehaha Ave. was the epicenter of the May 28, 2020, George Floyd riots. On May 30, 2025, we returned to the scene to see how the neighborhood is recovering in the half-decade since.

This brief video that I posted on Twitter (X) documents the apparent fate of the burned-out hulk of the city’s 3rd precinct police station.

The fate of the other three corners of the intersection is mixed. The Target store and the AutoZone have been repaired/rebuilt/reopened. The property across Minnehaha (a former liquor store) remains a vacant lot surrounded by chain-link fencing.

One block east, another casualty of the riots remains a vacant lot, but with the property still in private hands.

This afternoon (Saturday), the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported (via the Sahan Journal) on this effort, under the headline:

Lake Street rebuild: Latino developer has big plans for four razed lots near former Third Precinct:

Colombian-born entrepreneur Wilmar Delgado is moving forward with plans for his Viva project, which would have 100 housing units and ground-floor retail space.

So far, Delgado has received $600,000 in grants from the city and county. Groundbreaking is expected no earlier than 2028.

The Lake Street O’Reilly auto parts building, three blocks to the east of the 3rd precinct, is no more. For years, it sat as another boarded-up hulk:

A year ago, the building was torn down and the lot cleared. The new owner is the unimaginatively-named, special-purpose corporate entity 2905 East Lake Street LLC. The site is controlled by a local nonprofit, COPAL (the handle is an acronym for the full Spanish name). The property was purchased in August 2023 for $1.2 million.

A big deal was made of the building demolition in April 2024, but for over a year, the site has remained a vacant lot:

As the sign indicates, the lot is planned to be converted into the Latino Center for Community Engagement (LCCE), with a 24,000 sq. ft. building and a soccer field.

COPAL is currently raising funds to build the project, with a goal of $12 million. They remain well short of that mark but have assembled an impressive donor list of individuals and prominent private foundations. Among government entities donating so far are Hennepin County and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

A bill (HF 2247) was introduced at the legislature this year to provide the project with $7 million in state taxpayer funding. Based on the ongoing budget negotiations, it looks like COPAL is in line to receive $500,000 of state money (Line 260). COPAL received $1 million in the 2023 state budget.

At least for this address on East Lake Street, we are in the process of converting a functioning, tax-paying, for-profit, job-providing business into a tax-exempt, taxpayer-subsidized, nonprofit meeting space for occasional use by the local community.

Getting rid of the blight was an improvement, but getting rid of the tax base will ultimately prove unsustainable.