For a business association to gather hundreds of people together, twice in two weeks, means something for Uptown.

The Uptown Association’s two recent community meetings have touched on public safety and the future of the neighborhood. The business organization wants a business improvement district to address safety issues and proposes recruiting multiple businesses to the area in a short period of time.

These meetings come on the heels of a positive string of news for Uptown, with two new shops opening their doors this weekend in vacant spaces on the stretch of Hennepin between 31st and Lake to accompany the recently-opened Queermunity space, the city launching new programs to fill additional long-vacant spaces, and more.

Uptown is still rebuilding after the civil unrest in 2020 after George Floyd’s murder and in 2021 after Winston Smith was killed in the Seven Points parking ramp, the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple disruptive road construction projects, and the recurring perception that Uptown is a dangerous place to be. The business area is currently a mixture of empty luxury storefronts, longtime strongholds, and small businesses.

The Uptown Association, a nonprofit that collects membership dues from Uptown businesses, is coming off a rocky few years financially. They are also dealing with the fallout from their decision to pull the Uptown Art Fair out of Uptown. The art fair has been moved to the parking lot of Bachman's Lyndale Avenue store after a trial run last summer and rebranded as the SoMi Art Fair.

Since that decision was made, Andrea Corbin, owner of the Flower Bar in the Wedge neighborhood, has become the Uptown Association president. Corbin has been outspoken about reconstruction plans on Lyndale Avenue through her organization Vibrant Lyndale and chairs the We Love MPLS political action committee. Corbin co-hosted both Uptown Association meetings on March 24 and April 7.

What happened to the art fair?

The executive director of the Uptown Association, Jill Osiecki Gleich, is well aware of the art fair feedback.

“We’ve had a lot of negativity about it,” Osiecki Gleich said during an interview.  “Do I feel like a failure? Yep.”

The organization, which Osiecki Gleich said has been struggling as a nonprofit, has faced increasing costs to run the event on Minneapolis streets, which has been held in Uptown since 1964. Public data also show a significant decrease in the nonprofit’s revenue in 2020 and 2021.

The costs to run an on-street event

For the Uptown Art Fair to operate on Hennepin Avenue in 2022, Osiecki Gleich said the Uptown Association paid $25,000 for cement barricades, $35,000 for permits, $30,000 for garbage and cleaning, and $100,000 for security.

Items like cement barricades to protect from urban terrorist attacks and more robust security have not always been required in past years, and requirements from the City to include them made it more expensive to produce the event.

When an organization applies for an on-street event permit, the City determines the amount of barricades, garbage clean-up, and security that is needed. The City only collects money for its permits and an $800 security deposit in case an event doesn’t clean up. It’s up to the event organizers to find purveyors for those services.

In an attempt to verify these costs with the City, Shane Morton with Minneapolis Public Works said the cement barricade cost seemed high but vendors charge different amounts for similar services, making it difficult to verify the fluctuating costs of services.

Morton said there are no hidden costs with events because event organizers are charged according to their event plans.

Osiecki Gleich said she was disappointed with the City resources provided on top of the high cost of running the event.

“The last time we had the Art Fair, a couple years ago,” Osiecki Gleich said of the 2022 event, “I was the one trying to remove the people smoking crack at the bus hub because the police were just kind of done. They weren't even helping at that point.”

Neighborhood collaboration

Even though the Uptown Association has pulled big crowds to its meetings, the organization is not connected with all Uptown area businesses.

Damla Erten of the Sencha Tea Bar has worked with the Uptown Association but is not a member of the organization. The cafe has been in business for 26 years, formerly known as The Tea Garden.

When Erten established her own Uptown organization, the Uptown Community Coalition, she noticed the Uptown Association didn’t respond. All the other neighborhood organizations did.

Erten and Sencha Tea Bar’s assistant manager Maren Findley founded their organization after a person overdosed behind their cafe in February 2024.

“My team saved them because we had Naloxone on site, which I had done just on my own accord,”  Erten said.

Erten was invited to a new Uptown Association community outreach committee late last year but was turned off by the committee’s focus on forming a business improvement district. Erten is opposed to one in Uptown because they are approved and paid for by property owners, not residents. Erten is also worried about the cost being prohibitive to small business owners.

Changes in Uptown post-2020

“It looks like shit,” a person murmured in the crowd on April 7. She was reacting to Corbin’s idea to beautify the public and vacant retail spaces in Uptown.

Much of the public art along Hennepin Avenue between Lake Street and 31st Street popped up during 2020 and 2021 after people caused property damage to businesses.

“The Apple Store was completely ruined. Timberland, that was completely ruined,” Osiecki Gleich recounted.

And then there were more business closures, with twinges of public safety concerns mixed in.

Juut Salon’s departure at Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue in 2021 was amplified with the owners citing “violence in the area” as the reason for its closure.

"It has become more and more evident that Uptown continues to struggle with store closings, social unrest, crime, and street closures," a Juut Salon statement reads from 2021.

When the Uptown Association tried to get funding to assist these businesses in Uptown, they struggled to qualify for City opportunities.

According to Osiecki Gleich, many of the impacted Uptown businesses in 2020 were either vacant or owned by large corporations so they did not qualify for many of the civil unrest grants that businesses on Lake Street were receiving.

“We're also not considered a cultural district, and so those are additional grants we don't get,” Osiecki Gleich said, referring to a City program that financially supports specific areas of Minneapolis.

“We've been ignored for very long,” Osiecki Gleich said. “You get meetings with our City leadership. They seem sympathetic. But then there's no money where your mouth is. That is where it has always stopped.”

A new dawn for Uptown?

After years of inaction, this spring has led to some signs of life for the area.

Peter Remes of First & First purchased the former Apple store in March. Vacant retail spaces at Hennepin Avenue and Lake Street are part of this year’s Vibrant Storefront Initiative that works with local organizations and artists to “strengthen their business models while engaging the public through their art.” Rent is subsidized in partnership with the City through this program.

Business District Support grants will also soon be available for Uptown, as announced this week by Councilmember Katie Cashman. These grants can be used to fund marketing, community events, and networking events for local business owners.

And new businesses are opening. Queermunity, at 3036 Hennepin Ave., opened in November as a co-working, cafe, and event space. Moona Moono, a cafe and retail space, is opening in the former Paper Source at Hennepin Avenue and 31st Street on April 12. And Mosaic Coffee, started by a former Dunn Brothers manager, is opening at 3040 Hennepin Ave. “very soon,” says co-founder Kadence Cruse.

“We love Uptown,” Cruse said. “It’s a neighborhood full of creativity, character, and community, and we’re excited to contribute to the energy that makes Uptown so special.”