The Target Store on Lake Street in Minneapolis will reopen Wednesday for the first time since shutting down in May following riots that destroyed the business and many others along the normally bustling commercial corridor.
The multimillion dollar reopening restores a lifeline to a community hard hit by the civil unrest that broke out all along Lake Street in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Target workers early Tuesday were busy nestling melons and bananas into place, fixing lights, installing the last ceiling tiles and monitoring several newly expanded departments. The goal was to begin welcoming guests back to the store by 5 p.m. Tuesday for just three hours. The official reopening begins Wednesday morning.
“The team is really excited about opening this store, providing for the community and to have continuing relationships with guests and community members who flocked to the store to help clean up immediately following the riots,” said Cephas Williams Jr., the group vice president at Target responsible for the stores in the Minneapolis area. “We are humbled and grateful. And we want to help the community rebuild. So today is [just] the beginning.”
In the preceding months, store managers listened to store employees and surveyed neighbors while rebuilding a store that was destroyed down to the studs because of looting, vandalism and sprinkler damage. Target employees worked closely with the Neighborhood Development Group, the Lake Street Council and others to make sure that the store’s relaunch would serve to heal the community.
Unlike Target’s Midway store in St. Paul — which reopened a week after it was damaged by the May riots — the destruction of the Lake Street store was worse and took longer to rebuild.
Hundreds of thousands of products had to be replaced during a rebuilding process that cost Target Corp. “millions” of dollars, said Target spokesman Joe Poulos.
Today, the reopened building showcases new murals from local artists from the Juxtaposition studio that depict the journey of Target’s neighborhood since Spring.
The building sports new glass windows and an additional entrance that is closer to Lake Street and the light rail. It was installed in response to local feedback and should offer convenience to both local pedestrians and light rail customers. Also new: additional parking spaces for online pickup orders.
Inside, the produce section offers a wider array of fruits, spices and grab-and-go options. The CVS pharmacy is closer to the front door. And there’s a new and larger beauty section that include five new displays of products aimed at guests with textured hair. The toy section features an expansive and diverse doll selection.
“The assortment of the dolls we have are Hispanic, and African, [blonde] and African American. The store really expanded its [offerings]. When you walk through that store, we wanted to make sure that every guest felt welcome,” Williams said. Target aims to create a space where the Lake Street community “sees itself reflected,” be it the ads and art in the store to the products on the shelves, he said.
To get to today, “I have to thank that store team,” Williams said. “They worked extremely hard to get the store rebuild. And they were willing to listen and hear the voice of the community,” that led to so many changes.
Melanie Majors, executive director of the Longfellow Community Council, said Target solicited input from neighborhood groups and shared its plans of its redesign with them. “One of the statements Target has made over and over again, is they’re not rebuilding a fortress,” she said. “I think that’s really important. They’re building a much more attractive store.”
While community groups felt it was difficult in the past to connect with Target, they now feel encouraged they have more access to the store’s managers. “That’s huge for everybody,” Majors said.
Some 58% of the store’s hourly workers are people of color as are 88% of the store leaders. Getting input from the community residents also proved crucial in some decisionmaking, said Williams who worked with 200 employees from the store this summer to hand out essential goods to residents who suddenly had no where to buy milk and bread and diapers. The Cub Foods store next door was also badly damaged and closed. Cub now operates a tent store next door while it rebuilds.
In the same strip mall as the Target store, a Dollar Tree, Planet Fitness and Minnesota Transitions Charter School remain boarded up. Kitty corner from Target’s parking lot on Tuesday sits the twisted remains of what used to be Arby’s sandwich shop.
As a result, it is rewarding to have Target reopened, said two workers Tuesday as they reviewed the progress inside the store. The changes coincide with a pandemic that brought plexiglass to cashier workcells and hand sanitizing stations into the isles. The rebuild also launches amid a plethora of Christmas decorations and holiday merchandise.
Staff writer Kavita Kumar contributed to this article.