Construction king Richard Copeland was proudest of what he built in North Minneapolis

Richard Copeland leaves behind landmark buildings and a legacy of helping other Black contractors build their businesses. Photo by David Pierini

By David Pierini, Editor

Richard Copeland, who with one old pick-up truck and a shovel started a construction business that grew to be one of the largest Black-owned companies in the nation, passed away on March 20 from cancer.

Copeland’s shovel under the name THOR Construction moved dirt to build three Twin Cities sports stadiums, a convention center on the Las Vegas strip, and parts of Haiti devastated by a hurricane.

There were high-profile jobs in several states, but Copeland was particularly proud of the intersection of Penn and Plymouth avenues, where a gleaming Regional Acceleration Center (RAC) he built as his headquarters overlooks two of his other projects, the Urban League and Estes Funeral Home.

More importantly, Copeland blazed trails for minority contractors, and suppliers and was insistent on hiring people of color. THOR Construction grew to be the largest Black-owned construction company in Minnesota, among the largest in the nation, at one point, generating more than $350 million in revenue. Thanks to Copeland, other developers of colors rose with him.

“Richard has done a lot of stuff and it’s the stuff we see, the buildings,” said friend David McGee, who founded Build Wealth MN and is an anchor tenant at the RAC. “But Richard helped a lot of folks behind the scenes that you’ll probably never know about.”

Sadly, Copeland ran into financial setbacks, including costly lawsuits that forced him to close his company. The building, which Copeland saw as a beacon of hope for North Minneapolis, was headed toward receivership and possibly the hands of outside buyers. Copeland lived long enough to see the building get purchased late last year by McGee and another close friend, the Rev. Alfred Babington-Johnson of the StairStep Foundation.

McGee and Babington-Johnson also launched a fundraising drive to help Copeland pay for cancer treatments and in January, he told the North News, “Those treatments extended my life and gave me a chance to see something positive (with the RAC). I think the world of Babington and David.”

Richard Allen Copland was born on Aug. 5, 1955 and grew up in the Sumner-Olson housing projects just blocks away from the RAC. Copeland attended the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth and followed in the footsteps of his stepdad, who was a small business owner.

Richard Copeland outside the Regional Acceleration Center in 2018. Photo by David Pierini

The one-truck-one-shovel origin story for THOR Construction sounds mythical. In a 2018 interview with North News, Copeland said, “I built the business organically. I drove the truck. I shoveled the dirt. I hammered the nail.”

Life-long friend Bob Edmonson said the story is not far-fetched.

“He found a ratty pickup, got some basic rakes and shovels and was going after these sod lane projects and other little weeny deals,” Edmonson said. “It started to mushroom. He started buying a few more trucks, then a dump truck and so on.”

Copeland was vigilant about growing his businesses especially when doors closed on him in a predominantly white field. He said he was even blacklisted and used to getting knocked down, but always getting up “to fight the good fight.”

He even managed to have fun with the racial dynamics at play. The THOR name came about over beers with employees early on.

“I went to do an estimate and the people were surprised to see me coming through the door,” Copeland said. “They thought they were going to see a Norwegian guy or a European guy. We were laughing and (they said), ‘we should name the company THOR and surprise everybody when we show up.’ The next morning, I got up and they had written THOR on the side of my pickup truck. It stuck. I guess I get the last laugh.”

Copeland was a blend of spices: He was hard-nosed, brutally honest and prickly at times. He was also charismatic, funny, loyal and charitable, friends said. When pushed down, Copeland said getting back up was his best quality.

Edmonson said Copeland could have lived anywhere, but no place made him happier than North Minneapolis.

“He could’ve lived in a mansion on Lake Minnetonka, but he chose to stay with his people,” Edmonson said. “His pride (in North Minneapolis) was almost immeasurable, It was taller than any of the buildings he built.”