A Playground for Creatives.

Our history.

At the intersection of community engagement and space activation, NEW RULES has a two-pronged approach - realty development and activation. We turn unproductive and overlooked buildings in Black & Brown communities into innovative spaces co-created by the community to solve problems they have identified for themselves, both personally & professionally.

In 2015, NR was founded using components of design-thinking to learn more about key issues that contribute to the economic, education, and health/wellness issues within the Northside community. Drawing over 200 people in and outside of the Northside, participants shared their need for accessibility to food, affordable living and workspace, places to network and gather, and business and professional training. Our response was to purchase our flagship location; a historic 4000 SF commercial mix-use building located at 2015 Lowry Ave N. Over 18 months, 5,000+ hours of sweat equity, and nearly $200,000 in collective personal savings were invested in the restoration of our flagship location, and, on October 15th, 2016 NEW RULES opened doors to the public, providing shared workspace, retail, and event space to the community. The flagship location is on Lowry Ave. N is currently open, with ensuing locations to arrive along Lowry + West Broadway in North Minneapolis. Since launching in NEW RULES managed nearly $11 million in developments, including commercial and residential buildings throughout the Midwest and Southern Regions.