St. Paul business hub meant to aid Latino startups needed help itself to open

A long-awaited and fought for Latino business center on St. Paul’s east side is finally open, aiming to bring a needed boost to the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. Plaza Del Sol on Payne Avenue provides incubator space for five Latino food businesses and offices for other area businesses, but to reach this point, the project itself needed multiple lifelines. It started six years ago when the Latino Economic Development Center bought a dilapidated furniture store building with the help of $5 million in loans from the state of Minnesota. Renovations on the $11 million project began three years ago. Advertisement But problems kept arising — from the pandemic and the George Floyd riots, to inflation and construction surprises increased the price tag. Then the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota delayed the project again. Congress, the state Legislature, the city of St. Paul, Alerus Bank, U.S. Bank and nonprofits LISC and Propel all helped. If successful, the plaza will help train hundreds of fledgling caterers and food-business owners with the goal of launching full-sized restaurants and bakeries of their own, and hiring many more workers, within two years, said Alma Flores, LEDC’s executive director. More than half of households in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood make less than $75,000 a year and 46% speak a language other than English, according to Minnesota Compass.