By JOE KYLE
On August 12th, the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) held a press conference with Little Earth neighbors and community partners to encourage the government of Minneapolis to accept an offer from EPNI to purchase the Roof Depot site for $10.2 million in order to allow for EPNI and its investors to immediately begin constructing an urban farm, which will serve the community as a source of affordable and nutritious food, jobs, education, and affordable renewable energy.
EPNI and Minneapolis had initially reached an agreement in 2023 for EPNI to purchase the Roof Depot site for a total of $15.9 million by the closing date of September 15th, 2025, with the understanding that the state government of Minnesota would subsidize $12.2 million of the purchase price. In 2023, the State did allocate $6.5 million, but due to federal funding cuts this year, the state failed to deliver the remaining $5.7 million this year.
As noted by EPNI Communications Director Darby Ottoson, this outstanding $5.7 million was intended to replace money the city government had seized from its own Water Treatment and Distribution Fund as part of its larger plan to demolish the Roof Depot site and replace it with an expanded public works facility.
EPNI representatives questioned whether it should be the responsibility of either a non-profit or the state government to reimburse the city’s self-inflicted expenses. According to EPNI Executive Director Joe Vital, Minneapolis’ government does indeed have the ability to look into alternative means of recouping these $5.7 million. Furthermore, EPNI’s offer to purchase the site for $10.2 million is well above its appraised value of $3.7 million.
Despite making its 10.2 million offer at the end of June, EPNI has yet to hear back from Mayor Jacob Frey’s office on whether or not said offer will be accepted, much to the chagrin of community members given the time sensitivity of a response due to the looming September 15th closing date.
“The mayor’s delays have created additional delays,” said Vital. “As we wait for the city to give us an answer… [the mayor is] stonewalling this community’s ability to carry out its vision.” EPNI has already received numerous grants for construction and remediation that cannot begin without certainty of the sale. In fact, even government institutions, including the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, have appropriated grants to EPNI to begin construction on urban farm infrastructure as soon as site access is acquired.
Additionally, Kyle Samejima, the Community Outreach and Engagement Director at Cooperative Energy Futures, emphasized the value of EPNI’s urban farm as a source of affordable and community-owned renewable energy due to its proposed rooftop solar farm. “[this is an] opportunity for East Phillips…Little Earth, and Minneapolis to stand out as innovating and leading the way in bold, deep systemic change. It can happen, but not unless the city cooperates.” Samejima added, “to reduce energy bill burdens on people in this community…[we need to] really look at cooperative and community ownership as not just innovative and radical, but normal, and it can happen right here.”
CJ McCormick of the Climate Justice Committee added, “At each turn, East Phillips and Little Earth have offered Minneapolis a chance to uphold its professed values. If racism is really a public health crisis as the city government has proclaimed, then why not help a community of color kick out its polluters? If East Phillips and Little Earth really do constitute a ‘Green Zone’, then why not help them build a community-owned and operated urban farm to help clean up the air?”
According to Joe Vital, selling the site is the right and logical thing for the city government of Minneapolis to do. “Even if you read through the city’s 2040 plan, you see that the Roof Depot project advances nearly every goal within that plan.”
“When we meet with the mayor, we’ll be asking him to accept our offer for $10.2 million, and to support – not hinder – the transfer of this site to be stewarded by the East Phillips neighborhood. We’ll ask him: what legacy does he want to leave behind?”
