KMOJ Radio (89.9 FM), the African-American-oriented community station founded in 1976 to serve north Minneapolis, will move back home next spring as the anchor tenant of a $3.1 million resurrection of a long-abandoned complex at Penn Avenue N. and W. Broadway.
The restoration and expansion of the former Delisi's restaurant building is another piece of the storefront-by-storefront renaissance of W. Broadway, the frayed commercial artery that extends from the Mississippi River to Penn Avenue.
Developer Stu Ackerberg, who has North Side family roots and who has redeveloped several other properties in that area, has formed Catalyst Community Partners, a nonprofit developer that is working with the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition, Franklin Bank, the city, foundations and others.
His latest venture, the Five Points complex, will expand and refurbish the former Delisi's, a long-shuttered restaurant and office space that had become a blighted, abandoned hulk on the city's list of tax-foreclosed properties until Ackerberg acquired it a couple of years ago.
"Penn Avenue is where you enter the W. Broadway commercial corridor from the suburbs," said Sarita Turner, executive director of the W. Broadway association of about 60 businesses, ticking off several recent commercial and arts developments. "Our service area runs about 2 miles, from the Mississippi River to Robbinsdale.
"W. Broadway has been neglected and challenged for years, but it is headed toward vitality," Turner added.
Ackerberg said it took several years to develop friendships, partnerships, projects and credibility, starting when the Ackerberg Group redeveloped an abandoned W. Broadway building into the Agape child care center.

A history of broken promises

"There's been 40 years of broken promises in north Minneapolis," he said. "When we started our first project in 2004, the community was suspicious of us, and I can understand that. We've since developed housing, and redeveloped several commercial buildings.
"We will focus on north Minneapolis until it hits the tipping point -- when more existing property owners start investing in their own properties and when outside [commercial] investors start to really come in. We hope to do three to five projects a year."
Catalyst is contributing more than $400,000 in equity to the $3.1 million project -- a big down payment -- although that also includes some foundation grants that will benefit nonprofit KMOJ and adjacent public spaces.
Franklin Bank, the venerable city lender based on Washington Avenue N. that is owned by the Reiling family, agreed to lend $1.6 million on the Five Points project.
KMOJ, which was born in 1976 on the North Side, is moving back home from leased space in Uptown. In addition to KMOJ's new studios, the Five Points project will include a restaurant, offices, a public plaza and rain garden and a new transit shelter at a busy intersection.
About 50 permanent jobs should result from the investment.
Hennepin County and Minneapolis are granting or lending about $800,000, including federal urban revitalization funds, mostly for public works.
As North Side resident Calvin Littlejohn and several of his Tri Construction workers stood by last week, more than 250 businesspeople, politicians, neighbors and others joined in a festive groundbreaking ceremony that was the biggest on Broadway in memory.
"My daughters are going to be able to walk safe streets to shop, eat and be entertained on W. Broadway," said City Council Member Don Samuels, who lives a couple of blocks from Penn and W. Broadway.

A lot of activity

And cater-corner from Five Points, workers are preparing space for a restaurant in what was an abandoned Burger King fast-food restaurant. Across W. Broadway, the building owner has completed a nice face-lift for several small-business tenants. Street crime is down in the area.

There are more than $100 million of private and public projects planned, underway or completed within the past three years on W. Broadway. The main commercial artery of the North Side has lagged behind the South Side revivals of Franklin Avenue and Lake Street.
Recent and planned projects include:
• The new, $45 million headquarters of Coloplast North America at Broadway and the river that will employ as many as 500 people. Coloplast has established job-training relationships with North Side employment agencies and area schools.
• Teresa Carr and her American Indian Neighborhood Corp., the driver behind several successful developments on E. Franklin Avenue, is plugging away at the proposed Broadway Plaza, a $70 million project that includes the former Northside Mercury building and another building at 8th and Broadway that would be anchored by a YWCA and include health-related retailers and a restaurant.
• The restoration of the Capri Theater, at 10th and Broadway, has created a must-see destination for jazz and other performance arts.
• The decade-old Juxtaposition Arts at 11th and W. Broadway is planning a $1 million renovation that dovetails with street work and other face-lifts.
• Across the street, the former North Branch Library, abandoned years ago, is undergoing a $4 million redevelopment of the historic building into a new headquarters for Pillsbury United Communities, whose Emerge employment-training agency is a key link to area residents and jobs.