Apprehension toward future for Minneapolis store owner working to rebuild after riots

From the rubble, a new beginning.

“Went through about four dumpsters, four 30-yard dumpsters,” Joe Zerka says. “Now it’s cleaning up.”

Zerka, a son of Lebanese immigrants and a proud University of Minnesota grad, is starting over.

He’s rebuilding the Stop N Shop convenience store opened by his father Halim and an uncle in 1998 after his parents fled from the Lebanese Civil War in 1977.

“Definitely staying around,” Zerka said. “I want to be one of those businesses that stay. I want people to recognize that we’re here, we’re not going to go anywhere.”

The store was looted and burned twice during the riots that followed the death of George Floyd — who Zerka says was a customer here.

“George Floyd should have never died,” Zerka says. “Wish he was walking these streets with us, going to these shops with us and being part of the community.”

Outside the store are piles of crumbled concrete and other debris. Repair workers are busy carrying out pieces of drywall, parts of appliances, even giant refrigerator doors.

Inside, nearly three months after the destruction, the interior still smells like smoke. Wiring hangs from ceilings, and the leaky roof is an added headache.

“Still smell the burnt,” Zerka says as he walks through the damaged store interior.

He stopped and examined a spot where he says someone set fire to some papers.

“I do my best to think of, ‘How am I going to move forward from this?’” he said. “’How is this community going to move forward from this? How’s my family going to move forward from this?’”
On May 28 and 29, the store came under attack.

Surveillance video reveals what happened as looters swarmed inside. Chopper 5 showed images of people moving freely in and out of the store.

Zerka and his family watched the destruction unfold on TV.

"I was only able to watch the cameras for so long,” he said. “Seeing people try to stop people from going in, until the fire took place in my store.”

Zerka says some protesters defended his store, trying to keep looters out.

“I really wish I could meet them one day,” he says. “Say, ‘Thank you, thank you for trying. It isn’t your fault, it is what it is.’”

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When flames began spreading in Zerka’s office, the sprinkler system kicked in, leaving mold and rot behind.

“All this is so dirty, because the roof leaks,” he said, rubbing his fingers on a shelf. “This was once my three-door reach-in cooler. Now it’s down on the floor.”

The cost of cleanup and rebuilding could reach $500,000, Zerka says.

His biggest fear: What might happen after the trials of the four officers charged in the death of George Floyd?

“What if it happens again?” he said. “I just put in X amount of months or potentially a year or more into my business and I got a lot of employees who aren’t working. If we get hit again, that’s going to be another — how long is that going to take?"

Zerka is also voicing concern about his 13 employees who became instantly unemployed after the store was damaged.

“I had to call them that day, that Thursday,” he said. “The 28th of May, to say, ‘Hey, the store got broken into, got destroyed pretty bad.’”

The following Friday, Zerka says he personally delivered their paychecks.

He says he still checks on them once or twice a month to see how they are doing and that he’s planning to re-employ them once his store reopens. But Zerka isn’t sure how long that will be.

He hopes to have some construction before the cold weather sets in.

“Twenty-three years we’ve been at this location,” he says. “Businesses like me, all up on this mall, along Lake Street, we can’t go anywhere. I hope a lot of us stay.”

And then, there’s the hat.

Zerka wears his U of M ball cap, almost everywhere he goes, in all its maroon and gold glory. It’s well-worn and much loved.

Now, Zerka says his fiancé has bought him a new one. He plans on wearing it the day he reopens for business.

But first, he hopes for healing.

"This community, we’ve got a lot of work to do, and on top of that, politics as well and our justice system and the police,” Zerka says quietly. “We got a lot of work to do until we can get to where I know that we need to be."