MINNEAPOLIS — The city of Minneapolis will go back to the drawing board in deciding what to do with the former Speedway gas station across the street from where police killed George Floyd.

The City Council on Thursday rejected a city staff recommendation that the land be sold to and developed by a community violence prevention group called Minnesota Agape Movement.

Instead, the two council members who represent the 38th Street and Chicago Avenue area will meet with Mayor Jacob Frey and try to find a new way forward.

The corner property has been a flashpoint since it became the headquarters and gathering place for protesters who took control of the area after Floyd’s murder. Agape Movement helped the city clear out and reopen the intersection in 2021, putting the community violence prevention group at odds with another nonprofit affiliated with protesters vying for the redevelopment deal.

The council’s final rejection of Agape, a week after a council committee voiced disapproval, will prolong a fraught process that has already gone on for about two years.

Council Member Robin Wonsley accused the city of fumbling and mishandling the redevelopment, raising questions about delays and discrepancies in the selection process, which she said was supposed to be done last May. She said she has alerted the city auditor.

“This should not happen again,” Wonsley said.

But Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw offered a more hopeful view, saying this is a moment for the council and community to come together and do something “spectacular” in George Floyd Square, which she called a place of acceptance, love and unity.

Vetaw said there are “many brilliant folks” in the neighborhood “who are hurting” after the process has been “prolonged and politicized.”

“We can’t let that happen,” Vetaw said. “This is in honor of a man who lost his life.”

Separately, the council also voted not to require property owners in the neighborhood to pay over $636,000 in special assessments for a $15 million street overhaul that recently began in the area.

The fight for the development deal at the former Speedway site evolved from complicated neighborhood dynamics in the wake of Floyd’s murder in 2020.

The burned-out, graffiti-covered gas station has been a gathering place for protesters who took over several blocks and created an autonomous zone closed to traffic with concrete barricades, sculptures and traffic checkpoints that they vowed to keep in place until a long list of police reforms were made.

The area became a no-go zone for police, so gangs took control, working with the protesters to create their own form of protection. Crime spiked and businesses struggled as city leaders struggled to find a solution.

The Frey administration moved in to reopen the area in 2021, with the help of Agape Movement, which employs former gang members to defuse tension before it erupts into violence. Agape was given a no-bid $359,000 contract to reopen the intersection of 38th and Chicago — part of a push to hire community groups to help keep peace and avoid confrontations between police and activists.

But the move created friction between Agape and the protesters, who regularly meet at the old gas station, which they call the People’s Way.

The city of Minneapolis bought the old Speedway property in 2023 after a man was found dead inside the former gas station, his body set on fire. In 2024, the city began the process of finding a redeveloper for the site.

City staff recently recommended that Agape Movement be chosen to redevelop the space, but the council raised concerns about the group’s financial acumen and lack of development experience.

Agape was a finalist along with a nonprofit called Rise and Remember, which is affiliated with the protesters.

Rise and Remember is led by Floyd family members Angela Harrelson and Paris Stevens, and activist Jeanelle Austin. The group proposed a $2.5 million memorial garden and greenhouse.

Originally, Agape proposed a nearly $35 million, six-story commercial building with restaurants, a museum, a music studio and rooftop garden. But the group later scaled back the plan, according to city officials.

Neither group has development experience or a lot of money: Rise and Remember reported nearly $1 million in revenue in 2023 and $272,000 in 2024. Agape reported less than $50,000 in revenue in 2023 and 2025.

A city-commissioned 2023 survey found most people in the neighborhood supported the Rise and Remember proposal.

“It’s the People’s Way, after all,” Council Member Aurin Chowdhury said.

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