St. David’s Center Unveils Visions for YWCA Minneapolis

Wednesday, November 20th, 2024

Earlier this year, St. David’s Center purchased the YWCA Minneapolis on Nicollet Mall. Last week the organization launched a capital campaign and unveiled their vision to transform the underutilized fitness center into a state-of-the-art assessment, early education and intervention center.  

St. David’s is out of space at their existing campuses, and meanwhile their patient waiting list has continued to grow to over 1,800 young children. They recognized the urgent need for children and families to have more access to mental health care, autism treatment and pediatric therapies. 

The proposed renovation transforms the Brutalist-style building into a more inviting destination for children and families. A new vision for the building’s entryway pulls the deep-set entry out to the street to create a double-height, classy experience. The proposed exterior upgrades also include a sculpture-like overcladding to add light and levity to the structure.  

The building at 1130 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis will be renovated in phases to accommodate the YWCA’s early childhood center programming, create classrooms and therapy and family resource spaces for St. David’s, and add training, administrative and employee wellness spaces for the organization. 

St. David’s Center provides inclusive early childhood education, mental health services, pediatric occupational and speech therapies, disability support services and autism day programs. The organization currently serves 6,500 children, parents and adults with special needs, and this new downtown site will allow the nonprofit to serve an additional 2,000 children. 

Stay tuned to our website for more updates on the project! 

Please check out St. David’s Capital Campaign for more information. 

Read more about the project on the MSP Business Journal feature.