Once a familiar community landmark in downtown St. Cloud, Minnesota, a former First United Methodist Church constructed in the 1960s sat empty since its vacancy in 2013. Deterioration and deferred maintenance placed the building on a path toward demolition. The development team saw a rare opportunity to transform a distressed, underutilized building into a place where healing could begin.
Nelson Construction and Development teamed with Pope Design Group to reimagine and convert the church into a 48-bed recovery destination offering inpatient and outpatient services, including detox, residential treatment, walk-in assessments, and outpatient therapy.
The construction and design process was intensive, with some of the structure being destructed down to the studs, and then fully transformed to create a healing environment that meets the clinical, safety, and experiential needs of behavioral health care.