Roe Wolfe is a women’s boutique owned by Ashley Kilcher, a
makeup artist and Minnesota-native. Located in the North Loop, Ashley wanted the
store to combine her love for fashion and makeup. With a variety of
accessories, clothing and makeup, Roe Wolfe carries products from local
designers, like Tess + Tricia and Larissa Loden, and larger designers such
as Maison Scotch and Free People.
Although originally located in Mendota Heights, Roe Wolfe
moved to the North Loop in 2013. Ashley said the move has been wonderful due to
the North Loop’s strong, supportive community, and rapidly-evolving scene. The store attracts clients ranging from professionals on
their lunch breaks, young creatives, as well as people from the suburbs.
As a way to garner even more attention to the store and
neighborhood, Ashley created an annual Boutique Crawl in the spring of 2014.
Seven North Loop Boutiques teamed up for the crawl, attracting
hundreds of people from throughout the Twin-Cities area. With giveaways and
discounts, it was a huge success. This year, the crawl expanded to 19 businesses
including Local D’Lish and Martin Patrick 3–another reflection of
the North Loop’s rapid growth.
On May 26, the City of Minneapolis will launch a new housing program to help prospective homebuyers purchase homes in Minneapolis. The program is called Homeownership Opportunity Minneapolis (HOM) and provides up to $7,500 in down payment and closing cost assistance to eligible Minneapolis homebuyers. One of the goals of the program is to increase the participation of diverse households in homeownership.
The HOM program will be marketed through
the “Own Your Future, Own Your Home” campaign in partnership with Minnesota
Housing and Minnesota Homeownership Center.
Through this campaign, homebuyers will be encouraged to see if they
qualify for the City of Minneapolis HOM program, access affordable mortgage
loans through Minnesota Housing, and get connected to free non-biased,
non-profit housing experts to gain the tools, knowledge and confidence needed
to own a home.
The City has
contracted with several community-based organizations including: African Development Center, African Economic Development Solutions, Bii Gii Wiin, PRG/Emerge,
Neighborhood Development Alliance, Lao
Assistance Center, and the Greater
Metropolitan Housing Corporation to provide community outreach and create
cultural communications to reach diverse communities.
Read more
information
Fifty Minneapolis high school students from the STEP-UP
youth employment program spent a Saturday at CoCo Minneapolis exploring
careers in high tech. The annual STEP-UP
High Tech Innovation Day is designed to inspire young people by connecting
them with local professionals and introducing them to careers and the skills
they need for their summer internships.
Led by staff from STEP-UP, CoCo and 15 local high tech
and start-up companies, interns heard from a career panel of tech
professionals, played with cool Google tech gadgets, and participated in a
team-building competition to design and pitch products that solve real-world
problems. The winning pitch – Healthy Food, Healthy Communities – focused on
providing resources to Minneapolis “food desert” communities. Interns also
explored essential skills such as collaboration, innovation, and problem
solving.
“I learned that dreams don’t
make themselves,” said one participating intern, “You have to strive for them.”
On Thursday, April 16, Everwood Development celebrated the
grand opening of the Grain Belt Apartments and Historic Grain Belt Office
Building at 1215 Marshall Street NE. In 1977, the City declared the
124-year-old brewery a historic landmark, saving it from
demolition. In 1989, the City purchased the property, and has since been
working with local developers and the State Office of Historic Preservation to
renovate the brewery complex.
The Historic Office Building is the final historic property
of the complex to be rehabilitated, completing the renovation. The Grain Belt
Apartments are a new addition to the complex, and are filling up quickly. Of the 150
units, 92 percent are already leased.
Everwood Development has also preserved archaeological
remnants of the building, including the Orth Brewery - the City’s first and the state's second brewery. Its remains have been
capped and protected by a public plaza at the corner of Marshall Street and 13th
Avenue NE.
Left: Testing to identify air leakage; Upper Right: Remodeling 4008 Minnehaha Avenue or former Falls Hardware space; Lower Right: Air sealing a crawl space.
In 2010, father-son duo, Rick and Issac Wheeler, created SustainMax, an environmentally friendly,
full-service home performance contracting company that employs seven. Both have
years of experience: Rick has been working in the energy field since 1980, and
Issac, since 2005. Their goals are to make homes more durable, energy
efficient, comfortable, and healthy. They do this by taking a science-based
testing approach to their work and by using techniques like air sealing, using
materials with low embodied energy costs, and reusing and recycling materials.
In 2013, Issac and Rick stumbled upon a “For Sale” sign in
the Falls Hardware store at 40th Street and Minnehaha Avenue in the
Longfellow Neighborhood. In addition to the retail store, it included a
warehouse in the back. Instead of buying tools, they ended up buying a
building from the early 1900s. With the help of Seward Redesign and funding
from the City of Minneapolis Great Streets program, they made extensive
renovations to the building including new recycled metal siding, insulation and
separate central air units for each space. They also used low VOC paints on the
apartment flooring and low flow fixtures throughout the buildings. The
outcome of their labor proved fruitful: an environmentally friendly warehouse,
a storefront already leased to TimeBomb
Vintage (the latest addition to the Minnehaha Mile
of vintage stores), and a second floor apartment ready to rent.
Issac and Rick say that
owning a small business is a constant learning process. This year, SustainMax
was one of 17 companies selected to participate in the Small Business
Administration Emerging Leaders growth strategy program. The two state that
their business’ greatest challenge is the company’s branding, as they are
often mislabeled as an insulation company, although they pride themselves as a
firm that looks at a house as an entire system. Throughout the seven month
program, Issac hopes to gain a greater
understanding of how to make SustainMax a more successful operation by learning
from others’ experiences and challenges. He plans to put these learnings
into practice to continue to grow the business so they can help more
individuals have healthy homes.
Approximately 600 teens attended the ninth annual Minneapolis Teen Job
Fair Saturday, April 25 at the downtown Minneapolis Central Hennepin County Library.
Thirty-five businesses and organizations were on hand to talk with teens
about jobs, employment and training programs, internships, volunteer opportunities,
and other community resources.
Two workshops were offered – “How to Get a Job”, with job hunting tips
from Leona Martin, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development
- Minneapolis North Workforce Center; and, “Who We Hire” with advice from an
employer panel on how teens can successfully represent themselves when job seeking and interviewing; presented by the Minneapolis
Youth Congress (MYC).
The Teen Job Fair also featured computer-stations staffed by Hennepin
County librarians to help young people identify resources to continue their job
search in the future.
Aveda Institute Minneapolis helped MYC volunteers with a fashion show (presented twice) that demonstrated to youth how to use dress to leave a lasting
positive impression when inquiring about a job opening, and/or
interviewing.
The Teen Job Fair is produced by City of Minneapolis department of Community
Planning and Economic Development, Hennepin County Library, AchieveMpls,
Minneapolis WorkForce Centers, Lunds and Byerly’s, Minneapolis Park and
Recreation Board, Minneapolis Youth Congress, and Minneapolis Youth
Coordinating Board.
On Saturday, May 23, at approximately
8:30 p.m., the Friends of the Cemetery in partnership with The Trylon
Microcinema will show a special screening of Buster Keaton’s film “The
Navigator” accompanied with a live score by local music group Dreamland Faces
at Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery located at 2925 Cedar
Avenue, Minneapolis. The proceeds from the Memorial Day weekend event will help
support the Friends of the Cemetery’s efforts to restore the limestone pier
fence that serves as the border of the cemetery along Lake Street and Cedar
Avenue. |
|
|
Gates will open at 7:00 p.m. on May 23; moviegoers arriving early will have the opportunity to experience the historic cemetery and partake in a smart phone history hunt. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets and lawn chairs, but pets and recording of the event will not be allowed. Coolers and alcoholic beverages will also be prohibited during the event, but food will be available for purchase from the Taco Taxi food truck.
The Friends of the Cemetery hope to have more than 500 attendees come out and enjoy the festivities. Tickets can be purchased online at Brown Paper Tickets or at the gate the evening of the event (cash only). Tickets purchased on or before May 15 are $5. Tickets purchased after May 15 are $10; kids under 12 are free. If you are unable to attend the event, but would still like to support the fence restoration project, please visit the Friends of the Cemetery website.
|