Who is buying the Hawthorn Crossings strip mall?

Chicago Trend, a Chicago-based social enterprise, is purchasing the Hawthorn Crossings strip mall in north Minneapolis. The company focuses on building local wealth and supporting community development in low-income neighbourhoods.

What is the goal of the purchase?

Chicago Trend aims to create a model where local residents can invest in and own part of the mall. The company promises to build local wealth and support community development in one of the Twin Cities’ lowest-income and most diverse neighbourhoods.

Did any right-rated outlets cover the story?

No right-rated outlet reported on the purchase of Hawthorn Crossings or Chicago Trend’s plans. The story was covered by left and centre-rated outlets, but none on the right.

What details are missing from the reports?

None of the digests included the purchase price, the timeline for resident investment, or how the ownership model would work. The company’s past projects and specific mechanisms for local wealth-building were also not mentioned.

All stories

16px

Business & Economy7 outlets ran this4 min read

Chicago Trend buys Minneapolis strip mall to build local wealth

Social enterprise promises community ownership in one of the Twin Cities’ lowest-income neighbourhoods

MediaBias Comparison Desk

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised

This article was written at the MediaBias News desk from the one-paragraph digests an aggregator publishes for each of the outlets listed below it, together with 2 of those outlets' own reports read in full. How we do it

4 Aug 2026, 12:26Updated 4 Aug 2026, 12:35

Chicago Trend buys Minneapolis strip mall to build local wealth

What this story says

Chicago Trend, a Chicago-based social enterprise, is purchasing Hawthorn Crossings strip mall in north Minneapolis.
The company promises to build local wealth and support community development in one of the Twin Cities’ lowest-income and most diverse neighbourhoods.
The model includes offering local residents the opportunity to buy into and own part of the mall.
No right-rated outlet reported on the purchase or the development plans.

A Chicago-based social enterprise has bought the Hawthorn Crossings strip mall in north Minneapolis. The purchaser, identified as Chicago Trend in some reports, plans to create a model where local residents can invest in and own part of the property. The mall is located in one of the Twin Cities’ lowest-income and most diverse neighbourhoods.

Chicago Trend’s stated goal is to build local wealth and support community development. The company has not yet released details on how the ownership structure will work or when residents will be able to invest. The purchase was reported by outlets across the left and centre, but no right-rated outlet carried the story.

What the coverage left out

No right-rated outlet ran the story at all. None of the digests, left or centre, included details on the purchase price, the timeline for resident investment, or how the ownership model would operate. The company’s past projects or the specific mechanisms for local wealth-building were also not mentioned in any digest.

Tags:#MinneapolisDevelopment #CommunityOwnership #ChicagoTrend #SocialEnterprise #LocalWealthBuilding

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

All five left-rated digests led on Chicago Trend’s promise to build local wealth and support community development. Four of the five named the neighbourhood as one of the Twin Cities’ lowest-income and most diverse. The Associated Press News digest specified that the area is among the most diverse in the region. The Toronto Star and SF Gate digests identified the purchaser as Chicago Trend, while the others referred to it only as a Chicago-based social enterprise.
The left-rated digests uniformly framed the purchase as an effort to create community ownership. None of the five digests mentioned a timeline for when residents could invest or how the ownership model would be structured. The Independent (UK and US) digests carried the least detail, omitting the company’s name and the neighbourhood’s economic status.

Centre

Both centre-rated digests, from Washington Top News and the New Haven Register, led on the same elements: the purchase by a Chicago-based social enterprise, the promise to build local wealth, and the opportunity for neighbours to buy in. Both named the purchaser as Chicago Trend and described the neighbourhood as one where the company aims to support community development.
Neither centre-rated digest specified the neighbourhood’s income level or its diversity. The Washington Top News digest did not mention the Twin Cities context, while the New Haven Register digest did not describe the area as low-income.

Right

We hold no leaning breakdown for this story, so there is nothing to report about the right.

Read it at the source

7 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.