The Minneapolis City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey have signed onto a $7 million plan to buoy small businesses that lost revenue during Operation Metro Surge. But local business owners are worried it won’t be enough.
The Small Business Resiliency Fund puts $4 million toward covering or reimbursing licensing fees for more than 2,000 businesses in the food and hospitality industry – essentially giving them a break on winter expenses – as well as $500,000 in grants to cultural markets like Karmel Mall, which could see up to $50,000 each.
The remaining $2.5 million would be spread across existing programs, like Great Streets, to support business districts, fund cultural business weeks and pay content creators to “spread the word about artists, businesses and untold stories around the City.”
The $7 million will come from the city’s Downtown Assets Fund, listed at $90.8 million in the city’s 2026 budget and supported by local sales taxes on things like liquor and hotel stays.
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City officials estimated that Minneapolis businesses lost $81 million in revenue in January alone as employees and customers alike feared leaving their homes amidst Operation Metro Surge.
Russ Adams, the manager of corridor recovery initiatives for Lake Street Council, a nonprofit that supports small businesses in the Lake Street corridor, said the programs were reminiscent of what the Lake Street Council had done during its “Lake Street Lift” efforts.
No single strategy will be able to cover the losses suffered by businesses, Adams said, but fee waivers will help.
Still, he said, “we’re gonna need multiple funding sources.”
Mahamed Cali, the owner of East African business community Madina Mall in south Minneapolis, said some shop owners have closed their doors for good already, unable to pay rent.
“We struggle,” Cali said. “We suffer so hard.”
Mohsin Hashi, who runs a tax preparation business at the mall, said it’s been difficult watching shops close, even temporarily. Many of them, he said, need rent relief.
“This year is pretty bad for all of us,” he said. But if Minnesota could put state funding toward helping businesses, it “would come back to the community.”
A $50,000 grant from the city would certainly help the mall, Cali said. But the money is directed at market operations more than tenant relief, leaving him worried about the mall’s nearly 50 shop owners — from booksellers to bakers to clothing retailers — behind on rent and at risk of closing.
“We need every grant we can get,” Cali said.
Fatima Ali, speaking through a Somali translator, said her shop, selling clothing, jewelry and other wares, depends heavily upon imports and exports, which have gotten more expensive due to tariffs. She’s nearly half a year behind in rent, she said, and desperate not to close after 12 years in business.
Cali added that past city grants had led to confusion among the mall’s proprietors about who qualified and how to apply. He’s hoping the city offers community meetings and clear communication to ensure the money gets in the hands of people who need it.
Chris Mozena, the founder and executive director of the Hook and Ladder Theater in south Minneapolis, said his nonprofit cancelled nine performances in January alone, representing about $40,000.
“February wasn’t much better,” he said, adding that the board of the Firehouse Performing Arts Center, home to Hook and Ladder performances, hasn’t felt safe meeting in person since the start of Operation Metro Surge.
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The struggles came just months after the theater’s first direct public fundraising drive, which had raised $80,000 to stabilize the theater’s finances.
Mozena said they’ve applied for “every possible resource” over the past few months and will be looking at the city’s new fund as one more piece of the funding puzzle. But it’s the state, not the city, that holds the key, he said.
“The need outweighs capacity,” Mozena said. “And the need is sustained.”
The city is not alone in funding small business relief — or trying to. Applications for approximately $2 million in relief funds for Hennepin County businesses closed just recently, and state Sen. Susan Pha, DFL-Brooklyn Park, has authored a bill that would establish a $100 million grant program to provide statewide business assistance. That measure is in its early stages and will likely face opposition.
