Local Church Aims To Buy Merwin Liquors In North Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A Minneapolis church is hoping to buy what's been a source of illegal activity in the city for years.
It's waiting for the sale to go through on Merwins Liquors at the corner of West Broadway Avenue and North Lyndale Avenue.
The parking lot is a hub for drugs and violence. The city of Minneapolis is helping with a loan to purchase the troubled property.
"This has probably been the most dangerous that corner has been in probably two decades," said Erik Hansen.
The parking lot of Merwin Liquors also serves as an open air drug market as well as ground zero for many deadly encounters.
But that all could change if one local organization has its way: Love Minneapolis wants to buy the building and property which many say contributes heavily to crime in the area.
"They already have the adjoining building so there are two properties that connect to one another and they also own some property on West Broadway so the idea is to redevelop that site to something that is more conforming to the city's comprehensive plan," Hansen said.
Minneapolis Director of Economic Policy and Development Erik Hansen says the city offered up $700,000 to Love Minneapolis to purchase the property.
Love Minneapolis is a development company that is a branch of Sanctuary Covenant Church.
Love Minneapolis says it has not decided what to do with the site and won't talk about it until the sale of Merwin's Liquor is finalized.
Part of the loan agreement includes a plan to get rid of parking lots and moving buildings closer to the street.
"Taking away that kind of safe harbor for people to hang out on the street corner all say long and then its leading to some negative behaviors drug dealing, prostitution, violence," Hansen said.
Hansen says community and city leaders are focused on the root cause of all the violence but know they must first focus on public safety.
"That's the main part how do we get interventions immediate interventions to disrupt the violent behavior that is happening on that corner," Hansen said.
Hansen says community organizations are working with the city to provide ambassadors to get resources to people dealing with chemical dependency, job, and housing issues.
Once the sale of Merwin's Liquor goes through Love Minneapolis will have five years to get development underway and seven years to complete it.
