History

Five Square is a historic commercial building in the Seward neighborhood that serves as a hub for small, independent businesses. Like many older commercial properties, it faced the familiar challenges of aging systems, rising operating costs, and a real tension between keeping rents affordable and maintaining the long-term health of the building.

Redesign acquired Five Square in 2018 to preserve the building as affordable, small-scale commercial space, recognizing both its architectural value and its potential to support entrepreneurs who are often priced out of traditional commercial real estate. Rather than subdividing the building into fully built-out, high-cost suites, Redesign chose a lighter-touch approach that retained the building’s character while keeping rents within reach.

The Vision

The vision for Five Square was rooted in a simple but powerful idea: large commercial footprints divided into many smaller units can support affordability, resilience, and long-term sustainability for both tenants and for the building itself.

In developing Five Square, Redesign transformed the 8,000-square-foot first floor into five smaller commercial units with shared bathrooms, a kitchenette, and a lactation/prayer room. New and enlarged windows and glass garage doors were added to increase daylight, visibility, and pedestrian engagement. 

This approach allowed Redesign to avoid displacement of existing tenants while addressing deferred maintenance, demonstrating that affordability cannot be achieved by ignoring capital needs. Instead, carving out smaller spaces increased the number of businesses the building could support, diversified rental income, and created a more financially stable foundation for maintaining this historic structure over time.

Five Square reflects Redesign’s belief that the cheapest rent is not the same as sustainable rent. Long-term affordability depends on stewardship: planning for HVAC, roofing, and infrastructure so that today’s tenants are not displaced by tomorrow’s emergency repairs.

Community Mission & Impact

By offering smaller, more manageable spaces, Five Square lowers the barrier to entry for emerging and service-oriented businesses. At the same time, the building remains financially viable, allowing it to stay under community-rooted ownership rather than becoming vulnerable to speculative pressure.

This commitment to place is also reflected in the public realm. When Redesign determined that a portion of the sidewalk needed replacement, the project became an opportunity to embed meaning directly into the streetscape. Redesign imagined commissioning a sidewalk poem that spoke to Franklin Avenue’s immigrant-driven vitality. Through community relationships, Redesign met Fayise Abrahim, a poet whose work captured exactly that experience (later discovering that she was already connected to the building, working for a nonprofit tenant at Five Square!)

Abrahim’s poem names the surrounding streets and reflects on watching elders from her immigrant community navigate daily life. Imprinting selected stanzas into the concrete – the first project of its kind in Minneapolis – created a permanent acknowledgment of the cultural and emotional landscape that gives the neighborhood its strength. The poem is not decorative; it is infrastructure for memory, marking the deeper meaning of the place for generations to come.

Five Square demonstrates that affordability is not just about rent levels. It is about designing buildings that can endure, financially and culturally. By dividing space thoughtfully, stewarding costs responsibly, and honoring the lived experience of the neighborhood, Redesign has created a building that supports small businesses today while remaining stable, meaningful, and community-held for the long term.