Star Tribune
HmongTown Marketplace expanding to second location at former Maplewood Mall Sears
The owners of HmongTown Marketplace in St. Paul are planning to turn the vacant former Sears store at Maplewood Mall into a HmongTown Marketplace 2.0. The space could include a grocer, adult daycare center, entertainment zone, office space, spa, food court, farmers market and more.
HmongTown Marketplace owner Toua Xiong, whose LLC bought the former Sears building and some of the land around it in November for $5.25 million, presented plans to Maplewood elected officials at a city council work session Monday night.
Sears closed in Maplewood in 2018, leaving vacant the 180,000-square foot space that formerly anchored the mall’s south end.
Architect Greg Elsner, of Shelter Architecture, outlined plans for the space and its surrounding area that include Hmong and Asian cultural motifs, vegetation and a layout that encourages interaction with vendors. The designs were influenced by a trip the team took to Thailand to look at night markets and food venues, he said.
Outside the building, the team is planning to build a structure to house a seasonal farmer’s market. Later, Xiong said the site could add housing.
Xiong said he hopes to start construction on the building in September or October, though he said he’d like to open the farmers market temporarily using tents this spring. Xiong said a grand opening for the site could come as soon as May of 2025, but also didn’t rule out opening the site on a phased basis.
Xiong and his wife, Nou, opened HmongTown Marketplace in 2004 in a former lumber company building on Como Avenue near the Minnesota State Capitol. With more than 200 vendors, including food, clothing and jewelry sellers, Xiong said it quickly became a destination for the area’s Hmong community and beyond.
Xiong and his family have been looking to expand, he said: With a Hmong population in the Twin Cities larger than the entire population of Duluth, Xiong said HmongTown and the nearby Hmong Village Shopping Center aren’t big enough to meet the demand of customers.
At busy times, the parking lot at HmongTown Marketplace’s Como location, a more dense and urban area, fills up. With thousands of parking spots, that wouldn’t be a concern at Maplewood Mall, Xiong said.
“The Sears property is the perfect size for us,” Xiong told the Star Tribune. “At the same time, it is in a very, very good central location for our community.”
At the same time, Xiong said he hopes the development would help the Maplewood community, bringing more foot traffic to Maplewood Mall — something city officials expressed excitement about, too.
“It’s very exciting to see some things happening in our north end and especially revitalization of the mall,” Maplewood Mayor Marylee Abrams said.
Council Member Chonburi Lee said the market can’t come soon enough. He said he considers himself a “flea market kid.” His parents were vendors at markets like HmongTown and that helped pave the way for him to go to college. “There’s so many opportunities that will be provided to a lot of BIPOC and micro-entrepreneurs that this project will be bringing to our city,” he said.
Transforming the heart of both downtowns, which have much larger buildings than old warehouses, is going to take a lot more money, creativity and time. Josh Talberg, managing director at downtown Minneapolis brokerage JLL, said with no major apartment buildings on the drawing board in either downtown, the fleet of empty office buildings present a golden opportunity to create more housing and lead both cities in a new direction.
“You can can certainly see the fundamentals improving, and you can feel that vibrancy, and that’s ultimately the foundation that’s needed to get investors to reinvest in the city,” he said. “But it’s not as if these 18-wheelers can turn on a dime.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
