Demonstration Project: Payne-Lake Community Partners

Unleashing Emerging Markets

Payne-Lake Community Partners (PLCP) has a three-part agenda to connect people and place.

1. Invest in the entrepreneurial energy of new immigrants and existing communities of color
2. Accelerate the revitalization of two commercial corridors, the Lake Street corridor area in Minneapolis and the Payne-Arcade and Phalen corridor areas in St. Paul
3. Expand the corridor markets into surrounding neighborhoods and the regional economy

Demographic change drives the strategic context
Minneapolis-St. Paul had the fifth highest increase in its foreign-born population among the 23 Living Cities, according to the Brookings-Living Cities Census Series. "Because more than 60 percent of the cities' foreign-born population arrived in the country in the last ten years," according to the report, "the Twin Cities face unique challenges in connecting these newcomers to the economic, political, and educational mainstream."¹

A rapidly growing population of Asian, African, and Hispanic immigrants is bringing a high level of energy and vitality into neighborhoods that have historically been centers for immigrant business and settlement. Their success over the past five years has already transformed these corridors, stimulating new economic opportunity, stability, and development for neighboring businesses and residents. The Twin Cities has a singular opportunity to incorporate the social and economic advancement of these new Americans into the broader growth and prosperity of specific neighborhoods, surrounding communities, and the region as a whole.

PLCP benefits from a national collaboration
PLCP is part of a national funding collaborative called Living Cities: the National Community Development Initiative. Living Cities is a partnership of leading foundations, financial institutions, nonprofit organizations and the federal government. Its mission is to focus knowledge, capacity and investments that improve the lives of people in distressed urban neighborhoods. The McKnight Foundation is one of 17 funders of Living Cities. The Twin Cities, through Twin Cities LISC, is one of 23 cities that has received substantial funding and technical support from Living Cities over the last decade to improve and expand community development work.

In late 2002, Living Cities asked The McKnight Foundation to plan a new initiative in the Twin Cities using a collaborative model to invest strategically in selected neighborhoods. Efforts with similar purposes are underway in Chicago, Baltimore, and Miami, led, respectively, by the MacArthur Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

PLCP is Developing Models for and Promoting Investment in Urban Neighborhoods
PLCP will achieve four outcomes:

1. Vibrant, diverse neighborhoods that are long-term social, economic, and cultural anchors
2. Net new financial resources and sustained investment
3. Alignment of government and private resources
4. Enhanced knowledge about neighborhood and urban development

Each of these outcomes has multiple dimensions.

• Vibrant, diverse neighborhoods that are long-term social, economic, and cultural bases , anchored by commercial corridors. These neighborhoods will be strongly tied to the regional economy through vendor-purchaser relationships, transportation links, and retail and entertainment attractions that are regional destinations.

• Net new financial resources and sustained investment in the corridors and surrounding neighborhoods. New investments are expected to come from banks, financial service companies, local foundations and corporations, local governments, and national foundations.

• Alignment of government and private resources. PLCP will work on discrete projects that will help spur realignment of government investment in infrastructure, housing, and business and workforce development. Projects will include workforce development breakthroughs, vendor-supplier relationships, private investment in affordable housing, and sophisticated market studies to attract retailers.

• Enhanced knowledge about neighborhood and urban development. Going beyond the usual indicators of neighborhood change, PLCP will contribute to national knowledge by creating a neighborhood economic development typology, expanding the use of Islamic financing tools, learning effective ways to link neighborhood businesses with large regional purchasers, pioneering online tools for immigrant entrepreneurs; and learning useful strategies to expand immigrants' participation in civic decisions.

PLCP will pursue strategies at the family, neighborhood, and regional levels to achieve outcomes

• Build family assets and earning power
• Build vital, prosperous commercial corridors as neighborhood anchors
• Assure constructive community engagement, public education opportunities, and policy breakthroughs

To build family assets and earning power, PCLP will:

• Build strong businesses, by strengthening Latino, African, and Southeast Asian economic development corporations and ethnic business associations; creating and capitalizing a real estate loan fund to allow entrepreneurs to buy their own commercial property in a rapidly escalating market; enabling second-stage business growth by providing technical assistance and mobilizing loan funds; and pioneering the first OneEconomy Corporation online entrepreneur center.

• Expand career ladder jobs, through workforce development partnerships with the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Metro State University, and major neighborhood employers. One early partnership will focus on the development of an innovative entrepreneurship center with a workforce component. Others are likely to concentrate on expansion of industry-specific career tracks with good growth potential and willing employers.

• Encourage homeownership, by investing in distinct project opportunities where PLCP funds can leverage homeownership options; expanding existing lending and homeownership counseling programs; and exploring employer-assisted housing with major neighborhood employers.

To build vital, prosperous commercial corridors as neighborhood anchors, PLCP will:

• Attend to place-making basics , including branding and marketing Payne and Arcade Avenues as a retail destination; anchor projects such as public marketplaces; community options for transportation access; and increased safety.

• Empower entrepreneurs and residents, through organizing and outreach; coaching to assume leadership in neighborhood and city decision-making; and streamlining city approval processes.

• Increase housing density and opportunity, by investing in mixed-use, mixed-income projects and more home ownership, which will expand the customer base for ethnic entrepreneurs' businesses.

To assure constructive community engagement, PLCP will:

• Coordinate regularly with neighborhood and community partners, St. Paul and Minneapolis city governments.

• Use the Lake Street reconstruction project as an opportunity for policy change.

• Market corridor businesses to regional institutions and corporate purchasers.

• Advance regional competitiveness , by promoting policy makers' and business leaders' attention to closing the educational and economic gap between long-time residents, on the one hand, and immigrants and existing communities, on the other.

PLCP is a strategic alliance of committed partners
The initiative is led by six initial partners: The McKnight Foundation (host funder), John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Twin Cities LISC, Neighborhood Development Center, and the top deputies to the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul . Paul Fate, former senior program director of Twin Cities LISC and the Director of National Services for the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, is the executive director.

A dozen leaders from ethnic communities, neighborhoods, and financial institutions serve on a Community Advisory Committee, chaired by Rip Rapson, president of The McKnight Foundation. The committee meets every two months and is active between meetings through working groups shaping specific projects.

For further information, contact:
Carol Berde
Executive Vice President
The McKnight Foundation
612.336.3766
cberde@mcknight.org

Paul Fate
Executive Director
Payne-Lake Community Partners
651.379.0506
pfate@plcp.org

¹Minneapolis-St. Paul in Focus: A Profile from Census 2000, The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, 2003, p. 4.