Member Highlight: ACER, Inc.

The Opportunity Zone

Nestled in Brooklyn Center’s growing downtown is what Denise Butler, the Associate Director of ACER, Inc., calls “86 acres of opportunity.”

These 86 acres, known as Shingle Creek Center, house a 2-building strip mall that was purchased in October 2023 by African Career Education & Resource (ACER) Inc. and the Ignite Business Women Investment Group (IBWIG). This acquisition marks an exciting new chapter for both organizations and for MCCD, as ACER becomes our newest nonprofit consortium member.

ACER works with African diaspora communities in the Twin Cities metro to secure racial and economic justice. Since 2008, ACER has built power through culturally rooted strategies, engaging residents in civic participation, advocating for housing justice and health equity, and providing culturally relevant business advising, access to capital, and support to help entrepreneurs and residents shape the systems that impact their lives. Founded in 2020, IBWIG is a real estate investment cooperative of 32 African immigrant and women business owners who joined forces to confront displacement and reclaim control of their futures through collective ownership.

The inspiration for ACER and IBWIG’s purchase stems from long-term issues faced by local business owners renting their commercial spaces. IBWIG was formed by entrepreneurs receiving massive rent increases and evictions from commercial landlords. And many of the small business owners who receive technical assistance through ACER, Butler explained, have struggled to work with landlords that don’t maintain their buildings.

“Starting [a business] is already expensive, and landlords often hand over buildings to these small businesses as is, with HVAC issues, old carpet, and more.”

ACER and IBWIG want to change this story. Their strategy—purchasing property together—was born out of necessity, and also from a shared vision to create a place where multicultural communities can build power, stability, and belonging through cooperative ownership. With technical guidance from ACER and Nexus Community Partners, the members of IBWIG formally incorporated as a cooperative. Shortly after, ACER and IBWIG came together to assemble a financing package through Minnesota DEED, Sunrise Bank, and Shared Capital Cooperative, which enabled the group to successfully purchase Shingle Creek Center.

Now, the new owners are working to transform Shingle Creek Center into an affordable, cooperatively owned hub of commercial spaces where BIPOC businesses can not only start up, but thrive. Every small business that rents commercial space in Shingle Creek will have the opportunity to purchase a portion of the property, which creates new opportunities for wealth-building and democratic, community-centered control of a vital business corridor.

14 of the strip’s 18 rentable units are occupied by a combination of long-term and new small business tenants from IBWIG, and all the businesses are BIPOC-owned. The four unoccupied units are currently under renovation to ensure that they are turnkey-ready for new tenants. ACER plans to handle these and future repairs and renovations at Shingle Creek Center, ensuring that tenants can focus on running and growing their businesses. The strip mall will also house ACER’s new Innovation & Catalyst Center, which boasts newly designed meeting rooms, a café, coworking spaces, and mothering rooms for Shingle Creek Center’s business tenants to rent at affordable rates.

What makes these community-driven cooperative development projects so special, said Butler, is the personal investment of both Shingle Creek Center’s business owners and ACER. “The relationships we build matter. Lots of women from IBWIG are personally invested in this project, and that’s what keeps me invested.”

Shingle Creek Center celebrated its grand opening with the Shingle Creek Center Fair on Saturday, June 28th. Community members joined to enjoy food and live music, meet the Shingle Creek Center’s business owners, and celebrate the strip’s grand opening as a cooperatively owned, democratically run business hub.

About ACER

Standing at the intersections of small business development, community leadership development, and tenant organizing, the Shingle Creek Center project strikes at the heart of ACER’s mission, values, and philosophy. ACER’s approach to working in community is intersectional; not only does the nonprofit provide small business technical assistance and connect small businesses to financing, but it also leads voter engagement strategies, successfully advocates for tenant housing protections such as the Just Cause Eviction, and collaborates with the University of Minnesota to study dementia in African immigrant communities. Butler emphasizes that an intersectional approach to community development is essential because people experience challenges differently based on their identities, circumstances, and lived experiences.

“Business owners are tenants, too. Our business clients’ advocacy on issues like housing played a huge role in the success of the Just Cause Eviction passing. And this speaks to the power of the work we do. What’s core to our work here is relationships, relationships, relationships. Our boss is always asking us: ‘How do we build the relationships for this work?’”

As MCCD’s newest consortium member and a regional leader in supporting African immigrant communities, ACER looks forward to connecting with other values-aligned nonprofit members to advance racial and economic justice across the region. The organization is especially eager to collaborate with economic development organizations to reimagine how Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) lend in ways that are more responsive, relational, and community rooted.

Butler also expressed interest in partnering with others to develop coordinated, wraparound support models that reflect the depth of personalized guidance and education entrepreneurs need to succeed, not just at launch or during periods of growth but for the long haul. Beyond providing the capital, CDFIs need to set people up for success with supports like financial literacy training, which she calls “a wealth-building tool,” and consistent, long-term follow-up with loan recipients.

“A holistic approach to lending is so important… This handholding is often more important than the loan itself, and we need to make this a common practice in CDFIs.”

Take Action

Take action today by writing to your state legislator. Ask them to champion and sustain policies that promote shared ownership and uplift organizations like ACER that are leading the way.