Category: Minneapolis, Minnesota Local News

Downtown Minneapolis’ longstanding YWCA building on Nicollet Mall is about to get a new owner.

St. David’s Center for Child and Family Development, a Minnetonka-based nonprofit that provides mental health and autism services to children, announced Saturday that it’s buying the 120,000-square-foot building.

The sale comes more than six months after the YWCA shocked the community with the news that it was closing its Uptown and downtown fitness centers and pools. The YWCA has existed on Nicollet Mall for nearly a century.

St. David’s Center, which works with 5,000 children a year in its preschool, mental health and autism services, plans to expand its programs to serve an additional 1,500 kids a year in the new building, helping it meet the rising demand for mental health help, leaders said.

“Families are struggling and children are struggling more than they ever had,” said Julie Sjordal, CEO of St. David’s. “We have to increase capacity in order to meet community need.”

The YWCA closed its downtown and Uptown buildings on Nov. 1. Some members urged the city, park district or county to buy the buildings to keep them open to the public, but city and Park Board leaders said they couldn’t afford to do so.

YWCA CEO Shelley Carthen Watson said in a statement that the nonprofit received three offers for the downtown building, including from private developers and other nonprofits, but the organization prioritized a deal that would keep its early childhood center open on site, which St. David’s will do. She declined to disclose any details on the potential sale of the Uptown facility, which is in the high-profile Hennepin Avenue corridor near W. Lake Street.

St. David’s and the YWCA signed a purchase agreement for the downtown building in February and hope to close the sale by summer, pending approvals from the state and Hennepin County due to previous bonding funding.

The two nonprofits declined to reveal the price of the one-acre site and building; property values aren’t listed in county records because the YWCA is tax-exempt.

The corner of Nicollet Mall has housed YWCA programs since 1929, though the current building dates to 1976 and was remodeled in 2016. The 80,000-square-foot YWCA Uptown opened in 1987.

As a result of the closures, the YWCA, which still operates a building in Midtown, laid off 45 employees — about 13% of its workforce. Like other nonprofits struggling financially after the COVID-19 pandemic, YWCA leaders said they faced membership declines, staffing shortages and rising expenses. The organization decided to move away from health and fitness to focus on child care, racial equity and youth programs.

The building closures also sent about 300 swimmers in the YWCA’s Otters and Masters swim teams scrambling to find new swimming clubs at pools including South High School and Southwest High School.

For St. David’s, the new building will be the largest site it has owned in its six decades. The nonprofit, which started in 1961 as a preschool at St. David’s Episcopal Church, has grown to one of the largest child mental health providers in Minnesota.

Sjordal said the organization started looking a year ago for a new building as mental health crises spiked during the pandemic. St. David’s also leases space from Westminster Presbyterian Church downtown and owns a 65,000-square-foot former school building in Minnetonka.

Both buildings are full, Sjordal said, and there are 1,800 children on a waiting list for programs, with some kids waiting six months to more than a year.

“In the last several years, we have just seen a growing need across the community for children’s mental health, for autism treatment, for pediatric therapies,” Sjordal said. “We’re out of space.”

Renovating YWCA Downtown

St. David’s will seek tax credits for the project, Sjordal said, while embarking on its largest capital campaign ever to drum up an estimated $9 million to renovate the YWCA facility, which also has 28 parking spots and a rooftop patio.

Most of the fitness areas will be converted into classrooms or treatment spaces and St. David’s may keep the pool to start aqua therapy, Sjordal said. St. David’s will lease about 20% of the building back to the YWCA to continue to operate its early childhood center.

Some of St. David’s programs will launch there later this year, but the building won’t be fully used until 2026 after a renovation starts next year, Sjordal said. She added that St. David’s plans to go to the Legislature next year with a state funding request while working to draw donations and grants.

St. David’s is still recovering from the pandemic, which caused its programs to shut down in early 2020. With program fees and medical assistance bringing in most of its revenue, St. David’s had to furlough about 200 employees. Now, the organization has about 520 employees and is still rebuilding to return to 2019 staffing levels, she said. St. David’s has increased pay, Sjordal added, to attract and retain employees as many nonprofits struggle with turnover.

The new downtown building will have 150 employees, including existing staff and new hires. The nonprofit, which had about a $27 million annual budget in 2023, has hired fundraisers and boosted efforts to obtain more grants as it moves into a new chapter with its expansion downtown.

“It’s a big change [for the YWCA building],” Sjordal said. “And yet I think the legacy will live on through the kind of work that will happen in that building.”

Class 4A quarterfinals

Wednesday

At Williams Arena

White Bear Lake (21-7) vs. [1] Hopkins (25-3), 10 a.m.

[5] Lakeville North (24-5) vs. [4] Maple Grove (24-4), noon

Andover (24-4) vs. [2] Minnetonka (26-2), 2 p.m.

Rosemount (22-6) vs. [3] St. Michael-Albertville (22-7), 4 p.m.

Class 3A quarterfinals

Wednesday

At Maturi Pavilion

Minneapolis Roosevelt (23-7) vs. [1] Benilde-St. Margaret’s (24-5), 10 a.m.

[5] Stewartville (21-8) vs. [4] St. Peter (27-2), noon

Totino-Grace (17-11) vs. [2] DeLaSalle (25-3), 2 p.m.

[3] Alexandria (24-5) vs. Rock Ridge (26-3), 4 p.m.

Class 2A quarterfinals

Wednesday

At Williams Arena

Perham (26-3) vs. [1] Providence Academy (25-4), 6 p.m.

[5] Crosby-Ironton (24-6) vs. [4] New London-Spicer (28-2), 8 p.m.

At Maturi Pavilion

Rochester Lourdes (21-9) vs. [2] Albany (28-1), 6 p.m.

Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (19-11) vs. [3] Minnehaha Academy (26-3), 8 p.m.

Class 1A quarterfinals

Thursday

At Maturi Pavilion

[1] Goodhue (25-5) vs. Mayer Lutheran (19-10), 11 p.m.

[5] Southwest Minnesota Christian (28-2) vs. [4] Underwood (27-3), 1 p.m.

Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (24-6) vs. [2] Mountain Iron-Buhl (27-3), 3 p.m.

[3] Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (27-3) vs. Fosston (29-2), 5 p.m.

Semifinals

Thursday at Williams Arena

Class 4A: 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Class 3A: Noon and 2 p.m.

Friday at Williams Arena

Class 2A: 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Class 1A: Noon and 2 p.m.

Championship games

Saturday at Williams Arena

Class 4A: 8 p.m.

Class 3A: 6 p.m.

Class 2A: 2 p.m.

Class 1A: noon

Tournament brackets

Class 4A | Class 3A | Class 2A | Class 1A

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Tickets, TV

Ch. 45 will stream all three rounds for free and will televise the semifinals and championship games. Link to the streams and find other details on how to watch here. Tickets to the event range from $13 to $20 and are available at mshsl.org/tickets.

. . .

More coverage

The Star Tribune will be publishing stories and other content related to these state championship games and more this week. Keep up by checking startribune.com/preps each day. Thank you for reading and subscribing.

No surprises emerged when the the Minnesota State High School League unveiled the state tournament seeding. Being the best came with a reward.

Lake Conference powers Hopkins (25-3), Minnetonka (26-2) and St. Michael-Albertville (22-7) garnered the top three seeds in Class 4A.

St. Michael-Albertville is the defending champion. The top seeds in two other classes — Benilde-St. Margaret’s (24-5) in 3A and Providence Academy (25-4) in 2A — are the defending state champions in their class. Providence Academy is the reigning two-time champion.

Class 1A defending state champion Mountain Iron-Buhl (27-3) wound up as the No. 2 seed, tying back its 67-62 loss to top-seeded Goodhue (25-5) in the Granite City Classic over the holidays.

The tournament will begin Wednesday morning with the quarterfinals in the top three classes at Williams Arena and the Maturi Pavilion on the University of Minnesota campus. The Class 1A quarterfinals will be Thursday at the Maturi Pavilion. All four championship games will be held Saturday at Williams Arena.

Hopkins has its sights set on a state-record ninth championship. The Royals won the title in 2004, ’06, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’15, ’19 and ’22. They were runner-up to St. Michael-Albertville last season. St. Michael-Albertville also won the Class 2A title in 2001 and the Class 3A title in 2009. Minnetonka won its lone state title in 2016.

All four defending state champions are led by high-major Division I recruits. Seton Hall landed Ja’Kahla Craft of St. Michael-Albertville, Michigan got Olivia Olson of Benilde-St. Margaret’s, and North Carolina signed Jordan Zubich of Mountain Iron-Buhl. Everybody wants super sophomore Maddyn Greenway of Providence Academy.

Class 2A Rochester Lourdes (21-9), like Hopkins, has also won eight state championships. The Eagles will meet No. 2 seed Albany (28-1) in the quarterfinals. The Huskies are on a 20-game streak since suffering their only loss to Mountain Iron-Buhl.

New London-Spicer (28-2) and coach Mike Dreier will make their 21st appearance in the state tournament, a state record. The fourth-seeded Wildcats will face Crosby-Ironton (24-6) and outstanding sophomore Tori Oehrlein in the quarterfinals.

Minnesota’s property services union reached a tentative agreement with employers early Saturday, ending a historic strike that gained new benefits for janitors across the Twin Cities.

Officials with SEIU Local 26 said the agreement was reached after nearly 20 hours of bargaining. If union members approve the four-year contract, the hourly wages of nearly 4,000 janitors will increase to $20, with raises of more than 17% during the life of the contract. They also would earn more sick days, have lower health care costs and, for the first time, get life insurance and paid retirement accounts.

Members will vote on the agreement next Saturday.

SEIU Local 26 President Greg Nammacher said the pact is a “significant step forward” for Twin Cities’ janitors.

“These are, far and away, the biggest percent increases that we have accomplished in a contract,” Nammacher said, adding that union members pushed for life insurance and retirement benefits after six essential workers died in the pandemic. A survey commissioned last year found that 67% of members had no savings due to illness and losing time from work.

“Those [factors] really had an economic hit on a group of people that already were really struggling to make ends meet,” he said. “That was part of where our demand around an employer-paid retirement came from —really wanting to start to structurally fix that, so in the future people have something more concrete to depend on.”

Saturday’s announcement comes after negotiations between SEIU and cleaning companies failed over wage issues. Thousands of janitors launched a three-day strike in response, picketing outside office buildings, the State Capitol and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Police arrested 15 people who picketed at the airport Wednesday, including National SEIU Executive Vice President Neal Bisno.

Although the union represents more than 8,000 janitors, security officers, window cleaners and airport workers, Saturday’s agreement would affect commercial janitors comprised mostly of immigrants and people of color. SEIU Local 26 officials say those union members clean buildings that house “some of the richest corporations in the world” and work for large subcontractors such as ABM Industries, Marsden, Harvard Services Group, Carlson Building Maintenance, IFS Group and ISS Facility Services.

“We fought extremely hard and we got the best deal we’ve ever had because we were willing to go out on strike. We won a retirement plan and higher raises, and we helped expand union rights,” janitor Mike Bartos said in an SEIU statement. “We are proud of how hard we fought and are going to be ready to come back in four years to keep winning more of what we deserve.”

Separately, 1,000 workers from a dozen nursing home facilities launched a one-day strike on March 5, demanding better pay and work conditions. While picketing that day, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa President Jamie Gulley said staffing was down 25% at nursing homes with staffers participating in the strike. That work dispute remains to be settled.

Staff writer Dee DePass contributed to this story.

Join the adventure Saturday, June 8, 9:30am-12:30pm – Start and Finish in Commons Park

It’s back! After a successful launch in 2023, Hennepin Healthcare Foundation returns with Adventurama 2024, an urban experience in downtown Minneapolis. This fundraiser invites teams of two adults to complete challenges within a three-mile loop of HCMC. Teams earn points by completing both mental and physical challenges at 10 pit stops. This is not a timed course – you go at your own pace and complete as many challenges as you like. Based on feedback from last year’s event, they are elevating the challenges while bringing back favorites.

All proceeds from this event support patient comfort and care at Hennepin Healthcare. In addition to your team registration, you’re invited to create your own fundraising campaign and digital profile using Funraise. From there, you can share your page with family and friends via email or social media.

For 130 years and counting, Hennepin Healthcare has been a fixture in downtown Minneapolis serving the community, and their doors are open to all who need care. Count on them to lead during disasters, through pandemics, heart attacks and trauma.

Sixth-seeded Eastview kept up its run through the Class 4A, Section 3 boys basketball tournament with a 73-63 victory over second-seeded host Apple Valley in the semifinals Friday.

The Lightning (6-22) jumped to a 16-6 lead 8:46 into the game while holding the Eagles to one field goal. The Eagles cut the deficit to four with 2:43 left in the first half, but the Lightning answered with a 9-5 run to take an eight-point lead into the break.

The Eagles (14-14) went on a few runs in the second half to close the gap. Every time they did the Lightning had an answer.

The Lightning led by as much as 17 in the final minute of the game. Jonathan Mekonnen led all scorers with 37 points and Abdulqadir Abdulqadir had 16 for the Lightning.

Nati Tizazu led the Eagles with 18 points.

The Lightning will face top-seeded Eagan in the final. The Wildcats pulled away from visiting fourth-seeded Rosemount for a 77-63 win in the other semifinal.

Max Buslee and Charlie Birk led the Wildcats (16-12) with 23 points each, and Liam Madigan had 16. Jordon Vanwinkle led the Irish (10-18) with 23 points.

In other boys basketball section semifinal games:

Class 4A, Section 5: Babou Ann made a buzzer-beating three-point shot from the corner to give second-seeded Maple Grove a 61-60 victory over third-seeded Osseo. De’Maari Larkins gave the Orioles (19-9) a two-point lead seconds earlier on a jump shot from the wing. Henry Stang hurried the ball into the front court for the Crimson (20-8) but lost the ball, and it rolled to Ann. … Casmir Chavis scored 22 points to lead top-seeded Park Center to a 66-58 victory over visiting fourth-seeded Mounds View. Ari Gooch had 17 points for the Pirates (24-3). Joey Fretheim led the Mustangs (19-9) with 16 points.

Class 4A, Section 6: Second-seeded Hopkins jumped on visiting third-seeded Minneapolis Washburn and took a 75-55 victory. Anthony Smith led the Royals (23-5) with 26 points. Kyle Jorgensen led the Millers (25-4) with 22 points. … Top-seeded Wayzata pulled away from visiting fourth-seeded Edina in the second half for an 86-66 victory. Jackson McAndrew led the Trojans (26-1) with 24 points, and Isaac Olmstead had 19. Daniel Molhoek led the Hornets (16-12) with 20 points.

Sisters Eliona and Eliza Sefogah woke up Friday morning thinking they’d be headed to school. Instead, their mom told them they were going to downtown Minneapolis to see Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes face Penn State in the NCAA Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament.

“They were like, ‘Are you serious?'” said Leslie Sefogah of Plymouth, as she waited in line amid a growing group of fans in a downtown skyway along with her 10- and 8-year-old daughters and her own mother — a Hawkeyes season ticket holder — hours ahead of the late afternoon game at Target Center.

Sefogah said she laid out two Clark No. 22 T-shirts on her daughters’ beds to let them know they were in for a surprise. They were shocked, she said: “We’ve been watching them all season on the TV, and it’s different to see them in person.”

Waiting fans set up lawn chairs in the skyway, playing cards and handing out friendship bracelets. Reagan Cross, 12, said he made 311 bracelets ahead of the tournament, stringing together yellow and black beads with basketball charms that spelled out “Iowa,” “Hawkeyes,” and the names of every player and coach on the team his family loves. Jodi and Matt Cross of Pella, Iowa, helped their son make the friendship bracelets, a trend based on a Taylor Swift lyric.

“We decided to do it for the tournament and just hand them out,” Reagan said. “I was born a Hawkeye, and I’ll always be a Hawkeye.”

By 4:30 p.m., the line of fans waiting to get into Target Center stretched an estimated half-mile, spanning five blocks in the Minneapolis skyway.

Diehard Hawkeyes stressed that they’re fans of all the players, not just NCAA all-time leading scorer Clark. But the star guard has created a following unlike any seen before in women’s college basketball. This year’s Big Ten women’s tournament sold out for the first time ever.

For younger kids who look up to Clark, the excitement surrounding Iowa is all they’ve ever known. But for generations of Hawkeyes and longtime women’s basketball fans, Clark is bringing long overdue recognition to both the team and the sport.

“It’s unbelievable watching her live, and the whole team is just phenomenal,” said season ticket holder June Brady, of Garner, Iowa, who took her spot in the front of the general admission line at 5:50 a.m. Friday.

“Women’s basketball is being elevated,” Brady said. “People finally get it, I think.”

Lori Feistner, the Sefogah sisters’ grandmother, said it’s cool to see her grandkids catch the Hawkeyes bug. Eliona and Eliza said in unison that they were most excited to see Clark.

“It’s just amazing how she plays. Sometimes when I watch her I don’t even believe that it’s real,” Eliona said. “When she does stuff, like made the shot to become the number one scorer in the NCAA, it was so amazing she had scored all those points.”

The game tickets held by the Brown siblings of Moorhead, Minn. — Elena, 12, Eden, 11, Everlee, 6, and Tommy, 5 — were stocking stuffers they received this Christmas to see Clark play.

“I think it’s really cool how she can shoot those really deep shots,” said Elena, making nothing but net at City Centre where the Big Ten set up a half-court for fans to shoot around.

Mom Jamie Brown said the family watches Gopher basketball and the Timberwolves. “It’s all basketball all the time,” she said. “But it’s really fun for them to have a role model to look up to when they’re out in the driveway trying to shoot threes already.”

The Thompson family of Minnetrista joined friends who flew in from Kalamazoo, Mich., for the tournament.

“We’re all from Iowa and to see somebody like Caitlin Clark bring generations together of basketball fans is kind of fun,” said Carrie Thompson, whose 9-year-old daughter Kensington is now inspired to try out for basketball because of Clark.

Condra Allred, principal of Cleveland Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said that Clark and the entire team has inspired girls and boys alike.

“Every young girl now wants to be like CC, you know, No. 22,” Allred said. “[But] you see all the students get excited. … Young boys in Iowa are looking up to her … The kids love her.”

In the crowd ahead of tip-off, young girls held up signs that said they will be the next Caitlin Clarks and that No. 22 would look better in a Minnesota Lynx WNBA jersey.

A dozen strangers waiting in line for hours got to know each other so well that they bought Lynx tickets and plan to return this spring to Target Center. Kara Philips, 47, of Overland Park, Kan., who flew in at 3:15 a.m. and quickly joined the line, was among the new friends.

“It’s an amazing movement for women’s basketball, and it’s about time,” said Philips, wearing one of Reagan’s bracelets. “Caitlin might bring people to the arena, but once they get there, I think they fall in love with all the players.”

Friday’s game happened to coincide with International Women’s Day, a fact that was not lost on longtime Hawkeyes fan Amanda Mosley of Iowa City.

“It’s been past time to do something that’s this big and this exciting for women,” said Mosley, sporting a custom jean jacket with I♀wa on the back. “I played college ball in a small school and didn’t really feel like anybody cared about it. And so to watch people show up like this … I’m glad that we can see it and be a part of it.”

Article and photos by Becky Fillinger

Wendy Fernstrum, Common Scents

Are you ready for something totally different in a museum experience? The Weisman Art Museum (WAM) recently opened The Other Four – it’s an exhibit of multimedia works by avant-garde artists that explores touch, taste, smell and sound – the underutilized senses in art appreciation. That’s right – you can touch these artworks!

The sensory symphony was curated by John Schuerman, a Twin Cities-based artist and independent curator. The first exhibition of the show was at The Plains Museum in Fargo, ND in 2019, where it was well received. The pandemic postponed the exhibit until now at the Weisman.

Yevgeniya Kaganovich pieces

Schuerman notes that it isn’t easy to stage a multi-sensory show – it is difficult to install and by its very nature, it breaks the rules of the gallery, such as no organic matter in the galleries. (One of the pieces is a reimagining of an airline service where you may eat pretzels and biscotti.)

Schuerman with Alison Hiltner’s TethersSchuerman worked on the show for a decade. He had been thinking about the one-dimensionality of museum visual expressions for a while and wanted to try something more expressive and immersive – artworks primarily experienced through the other four senses. He notes that visual art appreciation maps heavily to the prefrontal cortex. Scientists are discovering that creative moments may require the prefrontal cortex to be shut down – let the mind wander – which can lead to innovative and imaginative outcomes when senses other than vision become more dominant. Visitors can run their fingers across surfaces, breaking the traditional “look but don’t touch” barrier. Vibrating sounds, fragrances and aromas are integrated into the installations, enhancing the overall sensory experience. You can actually wear some of the artworks!

Diane Mullin, Senior Curator at WAM, told us that the museum is thrilled to showcase this exhibit which has something for everybody. She invites the community to come to the museum and experience art in very different ways.

There are QR codes that provide an introduction to the exhibit and at each piece that provide a guide to the visitor. Schuerman hopes that the visitor will engage with the pieces with a sense of playfulness.

I had several reactions to the immersive exhibit – from delight to puzzlement – but what I liked best was the mingling of senses, seeing colors in scents, feeling textures in sound. 

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The Other Four will be on display until May 19.