Uptown Minneapolis businesses get more aggressive about saving their neighborhood

Uptown businesses have realized they need to be more organized and aggressive to save their distressed commercial area.

Uptown Minneapolis celebrated a rarity these past few weeks: the opening of Moona Moono, an Asian coffee cafe and retail shop on Hennepin Avenue. But neighborhood businesses are hoping it's a trend.

Business owners say they are working on ways to attract 30 to 40 new businesses, working with landlords on rent breaks or other incentives.

During a packed Uptown Association meeting last week, they also announced an effort to form a new business improvement district and improve parking.

Andrea Corbin, owner of the Flower Bar and president of the association, said a district that included the Uptown, Lyn Lake and Lowry Hill neighborhoods would make the area eligible for more state and city grants to fund new ideas and necessities like security and beautification.

"We believe creating a larger service area will create an economy of scale and allow us to do more with more," Corbin said.

Security has been a problem over the past few years. So has years-long construction along Hennepin that has discouraged customers, business owners said.

The area simply must attract more foot traffic again to survive, said Bryan Keeler, general manager of Lowry Hill Liquors on Hennepin.

"Before all this construction, Hennepin and Franklin, especially our spot where 94 feeds into it, I always thought of it as one of the busiest streets in Minneapolis … and it was packed with cars constantly," Keeler said. "Now, there's barely a trickle of cars coming in."

Lowry Hill Liquors lost many of its regulars because it is so difficult to get to, Keeler said.

"Some of the drivers will call and ask how to even get to the store," Keeler said. "That pretty much means they're going to go to another store, and once they create that habit, then we pretty much lose them."

Sota Clothing in March closed its Uptown location due to a lack of foot traffic.

"There just weren't other retailers around us to support people doing additional shopping," said Makenna Schluter, manager of the store.

Having other stores in the area creates a flow of customers browsing and window shopping.

"It made it a little bit more challenging for us since there wasn't the ability to stop into Sota and … then decide to go to another boutique after that," Schluter said.

That's the way it used to be when Uptown was thriving.

Now, stores struggle to stay open because of the state of the neighborhood, Corbin said.

After construction, there is minimal street parking along Hennepin Avenue. The construction came after the COVID-19 slowdowns, stacking challenges for area stores.

Sarah Rust, an employee at the Spectacle Shoppe, pointed to parking as a big concern.

"You can find parking on side streets, but not everybody is as agile and can walk as far," Rust said. "A lot of our demographic is 55- to 60-year-old people and sometimes even greater than that. I've personally gotten phone calls from people who scheduled, canceled and rescheduled to a different store because of mobility issues."

Mayor Jacob Frey said at the meeting that the city plans to address some of the parking difficulties by adding free parking on 27th and 28th streets.

Frey said that the new programs have the potential to help the neighborhood get back on its feet.

"None of them in and of themselves will be some sort of massive revitalization," he said. "They are not a long-term fix, but they'll help."