Taproot Investment Cooperative seeks stock holders for $300,000 Celtic Junction loan

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The owners of the Celtic Junction commercial building on Prior Avenue are looking for a $300,000 loan to buy out an original investor, a key step toward obtaining a new mortgage for a multi-million dollar phased build-out that would add a two-story addition, an outdoor patio and performance area, solar panels, a new elevator and a small shop for tea, sausages and Irish goods.
The building, which houses O’Shea Irish Dance, the Center for Irish Music, the Irish Fair of Minnesota and other arts organizations, may not have to look far for funds.
In fact, you might be sitting on some of those dollars yourself.
The Taproot Investment Cooperative, which sprang from a coalition of investment-savvy neighborhood residents in the area of Raymond and University avenues, formed in 2023 to help retain affordable commercial and industrial spaces for small businesses in St. Paul’s Creative Enterprise Zone. The investment cooperative plans to court St. Paul-area residents interested in buying preferred stock in a $300,000 loan to Celtic Junction.
Baker Court office building
After an early effort to purchase the Prior Works building on Prior Avenue fell through, board members kept looking for opportunities.
For its first stock offering, the investment co-op raised $300,000 from everyday investor-owners in 2024 to help a board member acquire and update the Baker Court office building at Raymond Avenue and Territorial Road, which had once been the oldest school building in the city’s St. Anthony Park neighborhood.
The site, which had once faced possible demolition, hosts multiple psychotherapy, family counseling and legal practices, among some 35 small businesses, and is now owned by Red Stone Corner LLC.
“They used the money for what they needed to, a roof placement and some HVAC work,” said Jeff Miersch, a residential remodeler who chairs Taproot’s 10-member board. “It’s somewhat similar to (the loan proposed for) Celtic Junction, but instead of maintenance it’s to cover debt.”
Second major investment
The $300,000 preferred stock offering around Celtic Junction would be Taproot’s second major investment.
The building, located at 836 Prior Ave. N., was purchased in 2009 by Irish immigrant, dancer and musician Cormac O’Se and his wife, playwright and theater director Natalie O’Shea, who was born in St. Paul. They’ve since positioned the building as the hub of the city’s Irish-American cultural organizations — known together as the Irish Outreach Coalition — and an educational space for year-round instruction in Irish language, literature, history and arts.
The building owners plan a phased build-out, to be funded by a $2 million capital campaign organized through the nonprofit Celtic Junction Arts Center, which is more than 25% complete.
Planned improvements include a two-story addition, an outdoor patio, a three-floor elevator, security lighting, bike racks, green updates, solar panels and an Irish goods shop. The new elevator would provide accessibility to a recording studio, Irish Fair offices and the Eoin McKiernan Library, whose written, musical and digital archives tell the story of Irish-Americans in Minnesota.
A mortgage will secure the Taproot loan, which will pay off debt from the buyout of an original investor, according to Taproot board members.
Membership
Taproot membership, which costs $1,000, is open exclusively to Minnesota residents, and only members can purchase investment shares that pay a dividend. About 70 state residents have bought memberships, Miersch said, and most of them live in St. Paul.
The first dividends on the Baker Court stock offering were paid out last summer to some 30 preferred stockholders.
“Our goal is typically 4% on the investment, so if you own one share of stock you get $40,” Miersch said.
For more information, visit taprootinvestment.com and celticjunction.org/capital.