Coliseum Restoration

About the project

Redesign Inc. (formerly known as Seward Redesign Inc.) was founded in 1969 to protect affordable housing in Seward West. In 1985, the organization reorganized as a Community Development Corporation to address the broader economic development needs of the neighborhood. Today, the CDC serves the five neighborhoods of Greater Longfellow (Seward, Longfellow, Cooper, Howe, and Hiawatha) in South Minneapolis, providing comprehensive community development services.

Redesign Inc. is located in Minneapolis, MN.

LISC provided Redesign Inc. a $7.48 million loan to acquire the Coliseum Building to protect it from demolition and create space for small businesses along Lake Ave. Potential tenants for the Coliseum Building include those that were displaced in 2020 and, in the long term, Redesign plans to partner with a number of Black-owned businesses to co-own the building. This project was financed by the Community Asset Transition Fund, a flexible, affordable pool of capital to enable the acquisition of commercial and residential properties in or near the cultural districts that were impacted by the civil uprising following the murder of George Floyd and the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CAT Fund aims to transform the nature of property ownership in impacted areas to build the income, wealth and resilience of BIPOC communities.