Ancient Traders Market/Franklin Circles Shopping Center

Creating safe, attractive gathering places

With the advent of spring, the area outside Maria’s Café and the Ancient Traders Market becomes a gathering place for the neighborhood

The Ancient Traders Market and Franklin Circles Shopping Center make up a major community development project that has helped stimulate commercial activity and beautify a neighborhood. This section of Franklin Avenue was long associated with crime. In 1999, a KSTP TV news exposé revealed the shopping center’s parking lot as a drug bazaar. Today, strategic streetscape and shopping center design has greatly increased safety, and provided residents with attractive, enjoyable outdoor gathering spaces. New businesses are an additional draw. The Ancient Traders Market includes a gallery featuring American Indian arts, crafts, and food, and the popular Maria’s Café. A new drugstore and a grocery store in the conveniently located shopping center bring necessities to a neighborhood where a high percentage of residents can’t afford cars.

Lead CDC
Great Neighborhoods! Development Corporation

TC LISC role