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 a guests back to the store by 5 p.m. Tuesday for just three hours. The official reopening begins Wednesday morning.
“The team is really is 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 who is 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 who walk to work and additionally 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 and the Lake Street Council to make sure that the store’s relaunch would serve to heal the community.
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. There’s a new and larger beauty section.
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, Williams emphasized.
To get to today, “I have to thanks that store team,” he 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.
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 Food 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 sat 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.