The future of a historic property in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood is in limbo as community and business leaders make arguments for competing visions.
Many of them also worry about the city’s proposal to sell the Dania Hall lot, vacant since a 2000 fire, to private developers.
Dania Hall, at 425 Cedar Avenue S., was built in 1886 as a cultural center for the Society Dania, a Danish immigrant aid organization. The grand building housed a theater, library, offices, retail spaces, and a dining hall for the Cedar-Riverside community, then a hubbub of Scandinavian-American culture.
The building’s prominence declined in the 1940s as neighborhood demographics changed, and it was sold in 1963. Though restoration attempts continued through the 1990s, two significant fires ultimately led to the building’s demolition in 2000.
In September 2023, community leaders asked the city not to sell the property to private developers. In a letter to Minneapolis’ Community Planning and Economic Development agency, the West Bank Business Association and several neighborhood nonprofits and small businesses asked the city to delay sale of the Dania Hall lot for private development.