Kelly Sharp, who owns an old-school barbershop called The Barber Sharp, recently redeveloped the Northeast Minneapolis building where the shop is located.
The building, which once housed a gallery and apartments, now has a handful of businesses.
Tiger Rose Tattoos opened up on the second floor earlier this summer, while the spaces for Studio 3 massage therapy and the
Tarnish & Gold art gallery are still undergoing renovation.
Sharp also plans to host various events in the building and create a community garden just beyond the parking lot.
The businesses collectively agreed to call the building The Foundry. Sharp explains that a foundry is a place where “precious metal is broken, melted down and molded to become whole again.”
It’s symbolic of what she hopes happens at The Foundry, and how it came together, she says.
She’d been running the barbershop for about a year at its original location a couple of blocks away--where it had been in business since the 1920s--when her rent increased. It was then that Sharp, who lives nearby, scouted out the building at 349 13th Ave. N.E.
It seemed like an ideal location, but the whole building had to be leased at once.
Although she’s seen other real estate ventures fail in the economic downturn, she decided to go for it. “I said, ‘build it and they will come.’ I said to the universe, 'send me the people who are supposed to be here.’”
Her vision was for a place that would “build a strong sense of community,” a kind of “third place” where neighbors can come and hang out, she says.
After she got to work on revamping the building, a process that included everything from repainting to opening up access to the courtyard, other business owners started to express interest.
She’s found that the main focus for those who want to be a part of the development is on “helping people get where they want to be in life”--not money.
She’s pleased that the community has embraced the shop.
For example, several generations are coming together at the barbershop. Some of the men who’d patronized the barbershop for decades under its previous owner had never had their hair cut by a woman before, she says.
“People can buy art or have a massage or sit in the courtyard,” she says.
Source: Kelly Sharp, The Barber Sharp
Writer: Anna Pratt