YWCA Minneapolis sells Uptown fitness facility to nonprofit workforce development center
YWCA Minneapolis is selling its longtime Uptown fitness facility and pool to a nonprofit that will turn the space into a workforce development and job YWCA Minneapolis is selling its Uptown fitness facility and pool to nonprofit Tending the Soil, a coalition of black, indigenous and people of color-led nonprofits and unions for $4.25 million. The 80,000-square-foot building, which has housed YWCA programs for nearly 40 years, will be transformed into a workforce development and job training center. The sale of the facility is expected to close in late June. The YWca, which laid off 45 employees as a result of the closing, laid off about 13 percent of its workforce and had to find new swim clubs. The new workforce development program is part of efforts to diversify the growing energy sector, with the energy workforce being predominantly white and male.
Published : a month ago by admin in Lifestyle
YWCA Minneapolis is selling its longtime Uptown fitness facility and pool to a nonprofit that will turn the space into a workforce development and job training center.
The 80,000-square-foot building that has housed YWCA programs for nearly 40 years will be sold to Tending the Soil, a coalition of black, indigenous and people of color-led nonprofits and unions, for $4.25 million .
“We are very excited. We have big dreams,” said Emilia Gonzalez Avalos, executive director of Unidos MN, one of the nonprofits with Tending the Soil. “There’s an opportunity to bring more vibrancy back into the corridor.”
She said organizations have been planning a workforce development center for years, but the initiative takes on greater urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sale of the Uptown facility, which is near West Lake Street and includes a 185-space parking ramp, is expected to close in late June.
The YWCA shocked the community last summer with the news that it was closing its Uptown and Downtown fitness centers and pools on Nov. 1. Both buildings are in high-profile city corridors, with the center on Nicollet Mall dating from 1929 and the Uptown facility on Hennepin Avenue from 1987.
Earlier this month, the YWCA announced it was selling its downtown building to St. David’s Center for Child and Family Development, a Minnetonka nonprofit that provides mental health and autism services to children. The purchase price was not disclosed by either nonprofit.
As a result of the closing, the YWCA, which still operates a Midtown building, laid off 45 employees — about 13 percent of its workforce. About 300 swimmers on the YWCA’s Otters and Masters swim teams also had to find new swim clubs, including at South High School and Southwest High School.
Like other nonprofits struggling financially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, YWCA leaders said they faced declining membership, staff shortages and rising costs and decided to move away from health and fitness. to focus on childcare, racial equality and youth programs.
Some YWCA members have called on 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 could not afford to do so.
Gonzalez Avalos said the organizations met with neighbors who were relieved to hear the building would not be torn down and turned into more high-rise apartments or condos and would bring “new life” to an area with a lot of vacant storefronts.
“They are very excited,” she said. “It will create opportunities.”
Gonzalez Avalos said the organizations will renovate the building and reopen it later this year as the Rise Up Center, which will focus on increasing green building jobs and clean energy fields. The location was perfect, she added, because there’s plenty of room to grow programs and it’s close to a transit line.
YWCA CEO Shelley Carton Watson said in a statement that the Hennepin Avenue space has long been a community asset, first as West High School when it opened in 1908, then as the YWCA and now as a nonprofit that “ reflects our mission to eliminate racism, empower women and girls; and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.”
Tending the Soil, created in 2018, composed of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha, Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia, New Justice Project, SEIU Local 26 and Unidos MN.
The new workforce development program is part of new efforts to diversify the growing energy sector. In the US, the energy workforce is predominantly white and male. About 24 percent of the workforce is non-white, while women make up 26 percent of the sector, according to a 2023 US Department of Energy report.
“We hear from the unions that they are eager to diversify their ranks. We hear from developers who are eager to diversify their workforce,” said Gonzalez Avalos. “It’s definitely a cutting-edge program.”
The building will also house administrative offices for Unidos MN, SEIU Local 26, Tending the Soil and UFCW 663 and will provide community gathering space, classrooms and a first-of-its-kind worker cooperative for immigrant union members in the construction industry .
“It’s a multi-sector workforce development program in partnership with unions and organizations deeply rooted in the community, and I think that makes it very unique,” Gonzalez Avalos said. “I believe this will be a national model.
Topics: Nonprofits, Fitness