Minnesota Reformer: Supporting the East Phillips Urban Farm should be an easy win for Minneapolis

Commentary by Joe Kyle for the Minnesota Reformer

Neighbors have spent a decade fighting to acquire the Roof Depot warehouse in the East Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, where a former pesticide plant has left toxic arsenic in the soil. 

The neighbors’ vision is to transform the site into a community cornerstone that would bring much needed resources and climate resilient infrastructure to the historically neglected neighborhood. 

In 2016, the city bought the site with plans to demolish the building — which would bring even more pollution into the overburdened neighborhood by disturbing the soil — and turning it into a public works yard. 

A wave of public backlash and a 2023 protest stopped the demolition of the Roof Depot, giving the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute a chance to begin the work to place it in community hands. People in East Phillips and the city then struck a deal to transfer ownership of the Roof Depot building to EPNI for community stewardship of the long-disputed site. It was contingent on the Legislature coming through with some financial help, however.

A sign urging neighbors to call Mayor Jacob Frey and ask that the Roof Depot site be sold to the EPNI is stapled to a telephone pole Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025.

By working with nonprofits, donors, and local lawmakers, EPNI has already accrued $10.2 of the $16 million price set by the city for this site, even though it’s only worth $3.7 million, according to a recent appraisal. 

This past spring, EPNI worked with legislators to secure a $5.7 million appropriation, but this funding was lost in last-minute, large-scale local funding cuts, the result of federal budget cuts resulting in sudden and unexpected withdrawals of appropriations previously agreed to by the State Legislature. 

There’s a simple solution to this problem, however: Minneapolis can simply drop the requirement for EPNI to pay the outstanding $5.7 million altogether.

Despite legal and public backlash from the get-go, the city spent millions from a public Water Fund to plan and design their public works project plan for the Roof Depot site. 

But EPNI did not spend this money, the city of Minneapolis did.

Minneapolis’ Code of Ordinances makes no reference to the need for Water Fund withdrawals to be repaid, and spending money to consider projects that ultimately do not go anywhere is a perfectly normal occurrence in local governance. It’s a sunk cost, and there’s no point trying to recoup it while the site sits fallow even though there’s a plan in place for something better. 

Supporting EPNI’s purchase of the Roof Depot would also help Minneapolis achieve its own established goals.

Transforming the Roof Depot warehouse into a community-owned hub would bring countless benefits to a neighborhood marginalized by decades of underinvestment and environmental injustice. 

East Phillips Neighborhood Institute rendering of what the roof depot could look like. (Courtesy of EPNI)

An indoor farm will provide East Phillips residents with access to affordable and healthy food, grown locally year-round, while the cooperatively-owned rooftop solar farm would power 200+ homes, providing a projected total of $9.4 million in energy savings. The East Phillips Urban Farm will make East Phillips — and Minneapolis as a whole — healthier, wealthier, and more able to weather climate instability to come. 

The East Phillips Urban farm will also advance many of the goals within the city’s Minneapolis 2040 plan. Alongside creating hundreds of jobs, the project would include space for local businesses to operate as commercial tenants and provide career training services for East Phillips residents, contributing to Minneapolis 2040’s goals for more living-wage jobs and a healthy, sustainable, and diverse economy.

Thanks to the introduction of a steady supply of renewable energy via the cooperatively-owned solar farm, it’s easy to see how EPNI’s project contributes to the Minneapolis 2040 goal of achieving an 80% carbon reduction in emissions by 2050. 

The project also includes ecologically restorative agricultural practices with rain gardens, rainwater recycling systems, and urban pollinator habitats. 

Bringing needed resources and opportunities to one of the most racially diverse neighborhoods in the state would bring Minneapolis one step closer to all residents thriving, regardless of race, ethnicity, or zip code — another 2040 plan goal. 

And what better way to express the multifaceted history and cultural offerings of Minneapolis than supporting space for future gathering, performances and art making?

Given that this project contributes to a better future for all in Minneapolis, why wouldn’t the city make it as easy and affordable as possible for EPNI to purchase the Roof Depot site?