 Left: Inside Surly brewery, Top Right: Inside the brew
house, Bottom Right: Outside the new Surly Brewing facility
In 2010, Omar Ansari, the owner of Surly Brewing, became
inspired to create Minnesota’s first destination brewery. However, before he could get started, he
first had to get the state’s liquor laws changed so breweries could sell their products
onsite. A year later, the “Surly Bill”
passed with Omar leading the way. With
this task completed, Omar began looking for a space large enough for his
vision. The search took him to over 80 sites
including an 8.5 acre piece of land located at 520 Malcolm Avenue SE,
Minneapolis. The parcel offered ample
space for a 49,000 sq. ft. facility, 1.5 acre garden and parking for employees
and guests (along with future expansion potential); it was also within blocks of
the new Green Line LRT and centrally located between both downtowns and near
the University of Minnesota. Add into
the mix that the Prospect Park Neighborhood was already working on a
high-density, mixed use district and felt that Surly Brewing would only catalyze
those plans and it was a done deal.
In October 2013, Surly broke ground surrounded by friends
and supporters. The City of Minneapolis helped
the brewery acquire $2M in funding from the Minnesota Department of Employment
and Economic Development (DEED), Metropolitan Council, and Hennepin County to
clean up and prepare the former potato processing plant. Hennepin County also
provided an additional $500K Transit-Oriented Development loan to support the
development.
On December 19, 2014, just over a year later, the brewery,
300 seat beer hall, kitchen, and retail store opened to the public on what
Mayor Hodges declared “Surly Brewing Day” in Minneapolis. The second floor event center and fine dining
restaurant are expected to be complete in the spring of 2015 and the outdoor garden
will open when weather permits.
Four years ago, Surly employed fewer than 20 people; now,
the company employs over 200 between its two locations. When asked if he imagined the number of
taprooms there would be today and jobs created in the industry due to his
vision four years ago, Omar smiled and said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”
City of Minneapolis Adds 5 New Providers to Support the Development of Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
On Friday,
December 12, 2014, the Minneapolis City Council approved $550,000 in new
Business Technical Assistance Program (B-TAP) funding to be dispersed through
ten two-year contracts to nonprofit providers to support small- and
medium-sized businesses to start, stay and grow in Minneapolis. With
these contracts, the City will add five new service providers resulting in 16 total
providers and $1.05 million in allocated funds to support the development
of Minneapolis entrepreneurs and small businesses. The providers
include: The Small
Business Development Center (SBDC)
housed at
St Thomas University, African
Economic Development Solutions
(AEDS), The
West Bank Business Association (WBBA), The Association of Women Contractors (AWC),
and the Corcoran Neighborhood Association.
B-TAP
nonprofit contract providers are focused on business development and already
have an established community network, cultural competency and technical
skills. Through September 2014, B-TAP resources supported the creation of 32
new businesses, 181 new jobs, and the retention of 406 jobs. Businesses
assisted through the program in 2014 were owned by a diverse set of
entrepreneurs with over 94% of program clients being minority-owned businesses
and 55% being women-owned.
Read More
Visit
B-TAP website
 Launched last summer, Hoodstarter is
a website designed to change the way the commercial real estate industry does
business. It does this by bringing together three previously distinct audiences –
community members, businesses and brokers - to exchange ideas about how to fill
a vacant space while making a neighborhood more vibrant. The site offers
different functionalities for each group while at the same time providing the
Hoodstarter team with valuable market data. Community members are
provided an outlet to post ideas and vote on what businesses they would like to
see added to their neighborhood. Businesses are given a platform to pitch
their projects and request support from community members (similar to
Kickstarter). Brokers can use the website to market a vacant space and
gather intelligence on what businesses
a neighborhood will support at a particular location; perhaps
learning of a concept they would never have
thought to recruit on their own.
With just six months under their belt, Hoodstarter
co-founders, Justin Ley and David Berglund, are still testing things out.
For example, three very different properties are currently featured
on their homepage – a commercial retail space in Hopkins, a giant furniture
liquidator store on Chicago and 38th in Minneapolis, and the
first floor of the new West Side Flats apartment building in Saint Paul owned
by Sherman and Associates. These locations were strategically selected so
the Hoodstarter team could analyze how different geographic areas and
commercial spaces performed on the site. This data will help them
continue to shape the platform and provide value to their growing broker
customer base.
Hoodstarter expects 2015 to be
a year of innovation, value creation and growth. They anticipate they
will be able to share their first success story (or stories) soon. They
also may look to expand to other cities. But most of all, they plan to change
an industry that has not seen much change in a long time.
New Software Engineering School: Prime Digital Academy
Prime Digital Academy is a
new software engineering school offering an 18 to 30 week learning program that
focuses on industry-led experiential learning and apprenticeship with some of
the metro’s leading IT employers.
Classes for the first student
cohort will begin March 3, 2015.
Nearly 30 businesses have
signed on to work with Prime Digital Academy by hosting apprenticeships,
serving on the curriculum board, and committing to hire graduates. They include
Sport NGIN, Thomson Reuters, Robert Half Technology, Digital People, and
GovDelivery, to name a few.
Prime is partnering with City
of Minneapolis Employment and Training, the Minnesota High Tech Association,
the Creating IT Futures Foundation and Jewish Family and Children’s Service of
Minneapolis to increase the accessibility of the program to all Minnesotans by
making public and private funding available for qualifying students who would
be otherwise unable to attend.
More Information
SciTechsperience Internship Program
SciTechsperience is an internship
program that creates the opportunity for Minnesota businesses to work with
talented college STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) students to
increase productivity, revitalize their organizations with fresh perspectives,
and find future employees.
SciTechsperience provides a
low-cost solution for small and medium-sized companies that otherwise may not
have access to qualified interns. Participating companies receive matching
funds of 50% of the intern’s wages up to $2,500.
Eligibility requirements are:
- Must be a for-profit company
eligible to conduct business in MN
- Seven-county metro area
companies must have fewer than 150 employees worldwide.
The company is doing business
in one of the following industries:
- Aerospace and Defense
- Agriculture, Food, Forestry
- Biotechnology, Life Sciences
and Health IT
- Engineering Services
- Fuels, Energy, Energy
Management
- IT/Computer Technology
- Mining, Materials,
Manufacturing and Processing
More Information
Manufacturing Production Course Produces Impressive Results
The City of Minneapolis
Employment and Training recently worked in partnership with EMERGE Community
Development to offer a highly successful, short-term manufacturing production
course, providing targeted, pre-employment instruction to Minneapolis
residents. Course instruction was based on an in-depth analysis of business
demand and specifically designed to lead to well-paying medical assembly jobs
at St. Jude Medical’s Plymouth location. The course was offered during evening hours, three days per week over a
six-week period, with transportation provided by EMERGE. Content areas included: clean room protocol, manufacturing terminology, and math and measurement for
production. Recruiting and assessment services were provided by EMERGE staff. Of the students recruited, ten of the eleven were North Minneapolis residents. Prior to the training, ten were unemployed and one had a part-time
job.
The results of the course
have been impressive: all eleven of the students in the first class cohort
completed the training, with 80% passing the pre-employment examination on
their first attempt. All students who passed the course will start full-time
work in January, 2015.
EMERGE plans to support
another training cohort in early 2015. Interested individuals should plan to
attend an information session at EMERGE’s North Minneapolis office location,
offered each Monday at 1101 West Broadway Avenue, at 10am, or contact program
manager, Mohamed Ali, at
(612) 236-0465.
The
City of Minneapolis will be giving away 200 radon test kits during the month of
January to increase awareness of the cancer risks of radon and to encourage
people to test their homes for it. Radon is an odorless, colorless, tasteless
gas that occurs naturally in Minnesota soils and can enter homes primarily
through cracks and openings in basement or foundation floors and walls. It is
estimated that two in five Minnesota homes have dangerous levels of radon gas.
Radon is the leading environmental cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. and the
leading cause of lung cancer among nonsmokers. The Environmental Protection
Agency has designated January as National
Radon Action Month.
Kits
are donated by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and are available at
the City of Minneapolis Development Review, 250 S. 4th St., Room
300. Hours of operation are:
- Mondays,
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8am-4:30pm.
- Thursdays
from 9am-4:30 pm.
Once
the supply of free radon test kits runs out, kits will still be available for
purchase for $9 each. Radon exposure and problems in homes can be fixed. MDH
recommends that all Minnesota homes be tested.
For
more information on radon testing and mitigation, click here or call the Minnesota Department of Health
Indoor Air Unit at 651-201-4601 or 1-800-798-9050.
People
interested in mitigating their homes for radon should consult the Minnesota
Department of Health’s list of certified radon
mitigation contractors.
 The Downtown East district of Minneapolis is experiencing an upsurge in development driven primarily by investments in the new Multipurpose Stadium and the adjacent Ryan Downtown East Mixed-Use Development. However, many other significant projects are also occurring in the area. The City of Minneapolis has developed a new webpage dedicated to all of the projects going on in Downtown East. To learn more visit here.
|
