Brooklyn Center Nonprofit ACER Receives DEED Grant for Revitalization

The Department of Employment and Economic Development handed out the first round of grants to help spark revitalization in communities.

The $80 million statewide economic redevelopment program awards grants to partner organizations to establish programs with specific communities that will, in turn fund economic development and redevelopment projects.

“Minnesota’s main streets are key drivers of growth, and so many of them have suffered in the last 18 months,” said DEED commissioner Steve Grove in a press release. “These grants and loans will create jobs, and they’ll help spark investment in key commercial corridors across the state.”

The program makes grants to nonprofit partner organizations to fund 30 percent matching grants up to $750,000 and loans too. Grants and loans can be used for repair or renovation of property, building construction, landscaping, engineering, infrastructure and design work.

African Career, Education and Resource Incorporated, or ACER, received $312,000 to distribute the funds to businesses in Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center.

The nonprofit operates in Brooklyn Center. The distribution will be made to businesses to support economic recovery from COVID-19 and social unrest. Some stores and businesses in Brooklyn Center were destroyed or heavily damaged after the police shooting of Daunte Wright last April.

Other first-round recipients include Destination Medical Center Economic Agency in Rochester, Duluth Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Inc, Heartland Lakes Development Commission in Park Rapids, the Minneapolis Foundation, St. Paul and Minnesota Foundation, Southwest Initiative Foundation in Hutchinson, and Virginia Community Foundation.

See also: Brooklyn Park Nonprofit Works to Increase Vaccinations Among Immigrants

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