When the YWCA Minneapolis properties in Uptown and downtown shut their doors and went up for sale last fall, it was anyone's guess whether the buildings would be repurposed or their sites would be redeveloped. But only a few months later, buyers have emerged with plans for both properties.

Two local nonprofits, St. David's Center for Child & Family Development and Tending the Soil, recently announced plans to acquire the former YWCA buildings and continue using them in ways that will serve the community. Once they’re fully operational, the nonprofits’ new buildings could bring hundreds of people to downtown and Uptown each week.

St. David’s Center and Tending the Soil hope to close on the properties by the end of June and begin renovations as soon as additional funding is secured.

What’s next for the downtown YWCA?

The YWCA has served downtown Minneapolis from its facility on Nicollet Mall for 95 years.

The fate of its early childhood education center was a crucial consideration for the YWCA as it evaluated offers on the downtown building. The YWCA prioritized proposals that kept the center operational because “it’s really important for us to have [childcare] options downtown for working families and people who live in the area,” YWCA Minneapolis President and CEO Shelley Carthen Watson said in an interview Downtown Voices.

That’s one reason why the YWCA chose the purchase offer from St. David's Center. The YWCA will lease space from St. David’s Center to continue its existing early childhood education program, which serves more than 100 children from 6 weeks to 6 years old, after St. David’s Center takes over the downtown building.

Plus, there’s already a longstanding partnership between the two organizations, with St. David’s Center conducting assessments for children in the YWCA’s early childhood program.

St. David’s Center offers behavioral and therapeutic services for high-need children and families, including mental health diagnostics, autism treatment, occupational and speech therapy, and disability services. St. David’s Minnetonka headquarters also hosts a childcare facility for toddlers and pre-K students.

The need for those services continues to grow, according to Carthen Watson. She said Minneapolis YWCA staff saw a “marked increase” in signs of trauma during and after the pandemic in children, parents, and siblings.

St. David’s Center CEO Julie Sjordal told Downtown Voices that many childcare programs are now “struggling with children with high needs.”

St. David’s Center offers services at a number of partner sites around Hennepin County, including in Hopkins and Osseo schools. The nonprofit expects to attract more high-need children and families to its services from the YWCA’s childcare program in the downtown building.

Details of the purchase agreement haven’t been made available, including how much St. David’s Center will pay the YWCA for the building.

Once it’s officially the new owner, St. David’s Center will start moving into the 120,000-square-foot building, then do a “light renovation” to reconfigure some office space and convert the main-floor gym to support occupational therapy, Sjordal said.

St. David’s Center plans to move about 70 staff members currently based at its Minnetonka headquarters, freeing up space for child and family programming there, to the downtown building after initial work is complete this summer. The organization hopes to have its East African Autism Day Treatment and disability services programming up and running in the new space by September.

A more extensive renovation will happen after St. David’s Center secures more funding to add classroom and therapy space. 

Sjordal told Downtown Voices that phase one could begin in winter or spring and continue through the summer and a second phase could happen in 2026.

St. David’s Center will be able to expand its services in the downtown building before the renovation is complete, though.

“The building has multiple levels, so it will be relatively easy to phase the renovation” while the building is in use, Sjordal said.

St. David’s Center plans to raise an estimated $9 million this year, seek tax credits, and “go to the Legislature next year with a state funding request” to fund the renovation, the Star Tribune reported.

At least for now, the pool remains closed, but St. David’s Center is “evaluating the costs and benefits” of using the pool for aquatherapy, Sjordal said.

Per an ongoing lease agreement, Sjordal said St. David’s Center will continue to operate a 10,000-square-foot clinic at nearby Westminster Presbyterian Church, where it offers mental health assessment and treatment services, occupational and speech therapy, and autism treatment.

What’s next for the Uptown YWCA?

Tending the Soil is converting the former YWCA property on Hennepin Avenue into the Rise Up Center, a workforce development and job training center, which will focus on the clean energy sector.

The YWCA “wanted to find [a buyer] who would be compatible with the community [and Tending the Soil] seemed like a really good fit,” Carthen Watson told Downtown Voices.

The YWCA received offers from “developers and other nonprofits,” but Tending the Soil’s offer came in at “a great price,” and the organizations’ shared mission helped seal the deal, Carthen Watson said.

“A lot of people don’t realize we also do workforce development,” she added.

The Uptown YWCA’s massive swimming pool will likely be drained and filled to increase the space available for job training activities, according to Carthen Watson. The pool is “very expensive to operate and not consistent with their mission,” she said, noting that longtime pool users like the Otters swim team have found homes elsewhere in the city and suburbs.

Tending the Soil plans to buy the Uptown building for $4.5 million and invest another $18 million in renovations, Finance & Commerce reported.

A bill recently introduced by Rep. Frank Hornstein, who represents parts of Uptown, would cover half the expected renovation cost. The bill “got a generally warm reception from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle” and cleared its first committee with a unanimous vote, Finance & Commerce noted.

Tending the Soil is raising funds from private sources to cover the remaining $9 million needed for renovations, executive director Cat Salonek Schladt told Finance & Commerce. 

Tending the Soil is a coalition of Minnesota nonprofits and labor organizations focused on organizing and advocacy in working-class BIPOC and immigrant communities. Its partner organizations – Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), New Justice Project, Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia, SEIU Local 26, and Unidos MN – represent more than 12,000 people.

The Rise Up Center will host a range of training and education programming to support Minnesota’s clean energy sector, which saw 50% faster job growth than the state’s broader economy in 2022. Programming will focus on moving workers into apprenticeship programs.

Unidos MN Executive Director Emilia Gonzalez Avilos told the Star Tribune in March that the coalition is building “a multisector workforce development program in partnership with unions and organizations deeply rooted in community” that it hopes will be a “national model” for diversifying the United States’ overwhelmingly white, male energy workforce.

The Rise Up Center will include a community space, which will host “multidisciplinary arts and culture in partnership with local artists and collectives,” and administrative offices for Tending the Soil, Unidos MN, SEIU Local 26, and UFCW 663.

“We’re strengthening the collective voice and economic influence of the BIPOC and immigrant workers we represent and addressing the long-standing barriers they face to securing union jobs with good salaries, benefits, and safe working conditions,” Rena Wong, president of UFCW 663, said in a statement.

The Rise Up Center will also host a “first-of-its-kind” union-supported worker cooperative owned and managed by immigrant workers, according to Tending the Soil.

Other partners in the Rise Up Center include Minnesota Training Partnership, Unite Here Local 17, Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council, and Future Builders Cooperative.

Tending the Soil hopes to launch the Rise Up Center by early 2026.