So successful is the market that visitors from Milwaukee, California and even France and other countries have toured it and taken notes to replicate it in their own communities. By necessity, negotiations with the city to develop more parking are underway.

Mr. Yang is a dominant figure not just at the market where produce vendors happily share lychee fruit with him and his visitors, but in the wider Hmong community as well where his success and standing in the community is honored. His path since arriving in the United States in 1980 is the essential, diligent immigrant story complete with sacrifice; a life of balancing work and education and grabbing opportunities as they present themselves. For example, Mr. Yang is a graduate from some of the first entrepreneur training classes NDC ever offered. Now with his leadership, Hmong Village is one site for NDC’s Plan It! Entrepreneur Training Program and houses at least five NDC assisted businesses.

Mr. Yang moved to the Twin Cities from Ohio, and opened a Chinese restaurant in Crystal, MN. He remembers taking GED classes from 8 to 10 a.m., then working the rest of the day. He received his business degree at National College in St. Paul while serving as a personal care assistant for his aunt.

That work suited him and he knew quickly that the home health care industry was where his future lay. After working for another agency, he saw a need for one specifically for the Hmong community. He created Southeast Asian Health Services in 1995 which now operates out of Hmong Village. With his NDC training, he wrote a business plan, created financial projections and managed employees and clients. His success and community impact led Sunrise Banks to nominate Hmong Village Shopping Center as one of 15 to be honored at the annual NDC entrepreneur awards on May 17, 2014. Former NDC loan officer Sai Thao worked closely with Mr. Yang and calls him “an inspiration and role model to Hmong entrepreneurs.”

It took nearly $3.2 million to transform the machine shop building to its present state, and initially banks were not forthcoming with loans because, he said, the Hmong didn’t have a history of owning shopping centers before. Because of Hmong Village’s success, banks now come to Mr. Yang and to the other investors, wishing to accommodate further remodeling and growth of the market.

Perhaps the most visually striking aspect of Hmong Village is the giant three-wall mural painted by Mr. Yang’s cousin. It wraps the produce vendors in a colorful shawl of the vision of Laos and its people: On one wall, during the air bombings in the late 1960s on another, the beauty – bridges, elephants, bamboo groves, and on the third, a bustling commerce scene.

“It’s a gift for the Hmong who visit to remember their culture,” Mr. Yang said. It is also a pictorial lesson for the wider Twin Cities community and its diverse people he hopes will visit and experience Hmong Village.