We are here to stay: How Jennifer Young and John Kremer helped turn the California Building and Northeast Minneapolis into a haven for artists

The year was 1991. Jennifer Young had recently been hired as property manager of a decrepit manufacturing building on California Street NE. The owner tasked her with keeping the building from falling into a crisis. But crisis was inevitable — arriving in the form of unpaid real estate taxes — and the building was on the brink of being foreclosed by Hennepin County.

A handful of fabricators and artists occupied the building; the latter were a particularly odd fit in the quiet residential neighborhood. The neighbors wanted the building torn down or turned back into a factory.

Young and her partner John Kremer had a better idea: they would buy the building and fill it with workspaces and studios for fine artists. With only 45 days before the bank planned to wash their hands of the derelict structure and give it back to the county, they had to act swiftly. “The vultures were circling,” said Kremer, referring to the speculative real estate developers who were “swarming the carcass to see when they should drop in.” Looking back, Kremer and Young don’t know why they beat out what were likely much higher bids than theirs; all they know is they made an honest and earnest pitch to the bank. It worked.  

The crisis wasn’t over once the building was theirs, though. They had the real estate back taxes to pay and significant repairs to make, and the 6th floor was neglected and undeveloped. They got creative, scrambling to find tenants to bring in rent. “We sent out the clarion call,” said Kremer, with his trademark dramatic flair.

Within a year, and with a growing community of artist tenants, they could breathe a little easier. Thus, the California Building became the first of its kind in Northeast Minneapolis: a studio building dedicated to artists long-term. The mission was clear: “We are here to stay.”

The urgency of long-term artist space

 One could be forgiven for not understanding the significance of that mission. In the ’90s, downtown Minneapolis was still home to a rising gallery scene in the Warehouse District, where art crawls brought enormous crowds. Kremer was a part of a thriving artist community that congregated in the New French Café & Bar. But, even as the galleries were flying high, many artists were living on the fringes, facing the constant threat of police visits and eviction.

Artists, as a group, are attuned to the warning signs of gentrification and displacement. Block E, where the Rifle Sport Alternative Art Gallery had thrived, was demolished for redevelopment in 1988. When the Target Center opened in the heart of the Warehouse District in 1990, Kremer said “the writing was on the wall.” It was only a matter of time before galleries became sports bars, rents went up and artists were kicked out.

With the major art centers dwindling downtown, artists like Aldo Moroni and Clarence Morgan found space with Young and Kremer. By 1993, the influx was gaining attention. Kremer’s friend Peter Leyden wrote in the Star Tribune, “The artists are coming to Northeast.”

Building a bridge to the neighborhood

The Northeast Minneapolis neighbors weren’t initially thrilled. In the public mind at the time, artists were associated with drugs, parties and generally unorthodox behavior.

Young joined the Bottineau Neighborhood Association to make inroads in the community. Artists had started moving into other buildings in Northeast Minneapolis, including Thorp and the Northrup King Building, but they were scattered across the area. Kremer said banding together as artists was a core driver for the group that started Art-A-Whirl®, of which both Kremer and Young were a part. But as building owners, it “was a way to open up the doors and let the neighbors in,” Kremer said. Inviting the public into the building helped demystify the artists, letting the public see first hand how normal and relatable most of them were. Thirty years later, the bridge Art-A-Whirl helped build is still going strong. Young and Kremer didn’t stop there, though. Seeing a dearth of good coffee in Northeast, they opened Mill City Coffee. They weren’t restaurateurs, but they wanted to offer the community another bridge space where food, art and conversation flowed freely. After 10 years, they decided it wasn’t the best use of their energy, but today Mojo Coffee, run by Marko Fields, occupies the same space and serves a similar vision. 

Over their years as building owners, Kremer and Young have leased the land to the California Street Farm, hosted public art from the Northeast Sculpture Gallery Factory and worked with local developers to make sure that land use appropriately suits the needs of artists and neighbors alike.

Building a haven for artists

 But first and foremost were the artists. Young said they were committed from the beginning to providing artists a workspace that was clean, safe and bright. The high ceilings and huge windows made “bright” relatively easy. But “clean” and “safe” would require great care, especially when added to a fourth goal: affordable. Over three decades, they have worked to keep the aging building in working shape without destabilizing rents. 

“We were dealing with a lot of people who had no money,” remarked
Kremer, “which is unusual in real estate.” But he said it’s been rare that they haven’t been able to work with someone to figure it out. He was surprised to receive a sizable check in the mail recently: a rent payment from a former tenant who, 10 years after it was originally due, wanted to honor the obligation. “What it tells me is [they] respected [their] time here and respected what we do. They take what we do for the community seriously.” 

To keep rents affordable, Young and Kremer had to be resourceful. They hired Kendall Bohn, Avdullah Karemani, Isidro Lopez, Tim Kremer and Stacy Krauzyk to help maintain and run the building, including its original boiler and ’70s-era freight elevator. They renovated the sixth floor and, over the decades, adjusted it to meet the needs of changing tenants. They commissioned Phil Daniel to replace the pebbled concrete wall on the first floor with artful glass, flooding the new lobby with light.

 Young also worked to curate the building’s tenants, meeting personally with each new applicant. “You didn’t have to have a really big name to get in here,” said Young, “But we did want to know that you were serious about your art, your career.” Many artists recalled Young proactively showing them spaces suited to their current needs, finding them suitable studio mates and upgrading or downsizing their space as their circumstances shifted.

 It worked in their favor that the building was built for industry — working artists need to be able to make a mess. The building’s site has historically been zoned for industrial use, which helps to insulate working artists from residential neighbors and vice versa. “We’ve got people pounding and sawing and cutting and making dust and noise and fumes,” Kremer described. Even as many new buildings have makers’ spaces, they are typically only suited for tidy uses. The old industrial buildings across Northeast are some of the best — and only — types of infrastructure suited to the practical needs of many working artists. This is what Kremer, Young and other art building owners are working to safeguard in the coming years.

A lasting cultural legacy

Young and Kremer’s legacy has reached far wider than the California Building. In 2000, they served as the fee developers for the Ballet of the Dolls dance company as they bought the Ritz Theater. Young and Kremer bought and restored the Odd Fellows building, winning a historic preservation award in 2002. With no shortage of artists seeking space in Northeast Minneapolis, Young and Kremer acquired the Northwestern Casket Company building in 2006 and converted it to artist studios as well, renaming it the Casket Arts Building.

Now, 35 years since the California Building was saved from ruin and repurposed as a creative engine at the heart of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, Young and Kremer look back with pride on what they’ve helped steward. From the coffee shop and community garden to the galleries and studio spaces, Kremer said everything they’ve done has been about creating spaces to foster community. “It’s all about creating the space where those accidental interruptions can occur between people, where people can rub up against each other — and then the magic happens.”

The sum is much more than its parts, and the buildings they’ve developed are much more than real estate assets. “Our whole approach to our business,” said Kremer, “has always been about setting a table, if you will, where people can create, where community can happen, where people feel safe.” By making permanent studio workspace for artists, they’ve empowered some of the most creative, expressive and generative people there are to build community together. Northeast Minneapolis and the Twin Cities are richer for the culture that emanates from places where artists can thrive.