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Workers at bakery

MINNEAPOLIS-ST PAUL

‘Transition’ Continues, But Bakery Feels at Home

When its murder rate exceeded New York City’s, Minneapolis got the unwanted nickname “Murderapolis,” and the Phillips neighborhood was one of the reasons.

Today, the Phillips neighborhood is home to the Franklin Street Bakery, a wholesale operation and retail shop that turns out 900,000 loaves of bread a week for giants including Sysco and Rainbow Foods, as well as local clients such as Bar Abilene and Tejas.

Few saw the neighborhood’s potential ten years ago, but one who did was Wayne Kostroski, president of Cuisine Concepts, which owns Franklin Street Bakery. He found others who were cautiously hopeful at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), which received funding from HUD, foundations, and financial institutions through Living Cities. To help the Phillips neighborhood become “development ready,” LISC made a grant to the American Indian Neighborhood Development Corporation (AINDC), which owns the bakery property, to work out plans with prospective business partners. AINDC was founded in 1975 by a group of American Indian women who lived in the Phillips neighborhood and wanted to stem blight through commercial redevelopment.

When the Franklin Street Bakery opened its doors in 2003, the turnaround was not entirely complete, but crime had dropped dramatically in the Phillips neighborhood and businesses were moving in at a brisk pace. “The neighborhood is in a transition phase,” says Wayne Kostroski. “We’re counting on our belief that it will continue to improve, and we’re counting on our role in shaping its future.”

With LISC support, CDCs soon will open a mixed-income housing development with more than 250 units, studios to three-bedroom apartments. The same grant program that got the Franklin Street Bakery off the ground was instrumental in launching Franklin-Portland Gateway Development.