A Grassroots Push Tries to Draw New Businesses to Lake and Hennepin

Faced with vacancies and a steady drip of closing announcements, the Uptown Association has taken up the work of recruiting new businesses to the Lake-and-Hennepin core. The nonprofit has declared a goal of filling 30 to 40 storefronts within a two-block radius in the heart of Uptown, and is working with leasing agents on vacancies and pushing to redesignate the district as a Business Improvement District for tax advantages.

The effort confronts a catch-22 the association describes directly: there is not enough foot traffic to attract new businesses, and not enough businesses to draw foot traffic. The strategy is to manufacture the demand a prospective tenant wants to see before signing a lease.

A new farmers market is central to that plan. The Uptown Farmers Market opened June 12, 2025, on the east side of the Seven Points development, a block from the Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue intersection. It runs Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m. through late September and features more than 35 vendors a week, including eight produce stands, food shops such as Peppered Palate and Dutch Oven Divas Sourdough Bakery, craft vendors and food trucks.

The market does double duty. It fills a public space with activity on a recurring schedule, and it functions as a low-barrier incubator where small vendors can test the corridor before committing to a storefront. Some of today's market sellers could be tomorrow's lease-signers.

The market is also a neighborhood collaboration. It is led by the East Isles Neighborhood Association with financial contributions from Cedar-Isles-Dean, East Bde Maka Ska, West Bde Maka Ska, the Wedge, Lowry Hill, Kenwood and South Uptown. That spread of support reaches several of the lakes neighborhoods directly.

The volunteer effort runs alongside official programs, but the hard part is sustaining it. Volunteer energy can flag, events require organizers and funding, and recruiting businesses to a corridor with a reputation for closures is slow, uncertain work. Whether the push can meaningfully reverse Uptown's vacancies remains to be seen, but a visible, organized refusal to give up on the district is itself a counter to the story of decline that has dogged it.