The onetime high school gym is being converted to a workforce development hub
I was having coffee with a fellow blogger when he mentioned a good story for me to dig into: what is going on with the site of the former Uptown YMCA? I was vaguely aware that something was happening there. I actually have some history with the site.
I graduated from Minneapolis West High School, located at 28th Street and Hennepin Avenue, in 1977. When I was graduating, it was clear that dear old West High would not survive into the future due to declining enrollment and budget pressures. Sure enough, the Minneapolis Public Schools closed West, Central, and Marshall U High Schools in 1982. However, after I graduated and before it was closed, the West High family (I assume the PTA) somehow managed to convince the school board to fund the construction of a modern athletic facility next to the school, which had been built in 1908. The idea was that surely if a capital investment like that were made, the school board would not close the school. Wrong!
The Minneapolis YWCA acquired the building from the Minneapolis Public Schools and opened the Uptown Branch in 1987. The YWCA operated the site until its closure in November 2023. It has sat vacant since then; however, he site will now have a new purpose: the Rise Up Center.
Per the Unidos MN’s website (footnotes and links added by me):
The Rise Up Center is an opportunity center and an energy resilience hub where multiracial, low-income, working families can access pre-apprenticeships, jobs, and job readiness training in the fields of green energy, construction, service, and food.
Led by BIPOC1 labor and power-building organizations, the Rise Up Center will be capable of training 3,000 Minnesotans annually. Partners are Unidos MN, SEIU 262, Unite Here 17, the New Justice Project, UFCW 663, the Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council, and the Future Builders Cooperative.
All training programs will address the barriers commonly faced by women, immigrants, people of color, those without a high school degree, and workers with past involvement in the criminal system. The Rise Up Center will rehabilitate the former YWCA Uptown location, located at 2808 Hennepin Ave S, and will incorporate environmentally-conscious design standards.
Per Finance and Commerce, Tending the Soil (the coalition of some of the partners mentioned in the above quote) purchased the 80,000-square-foot Uptown YWCA building for $4.25 million from the YMCA for the purpose of converting the building into a workforce development center. According to a flyer I found online, the overall project is estimated to cost $22.5 million, and the Center is expected to open in 2026. Here is an excerpt from the flyer detailing the financing of the Rise Up Center project:
Notes on the above:
Acquisition
- City of Minneapolis’ $500,000 contribution
- In 2023, the City of Minneapolis authorized a pre-development forgivable loan agreement of up to $250,000 with Tending the Soil MN for the development of the Rise Up Center.
- I was not able to find the source of the other $250K from Minneapolis
- $1,5000,000, which came from the Minnesota Legislature as part of HS 6703
- I don’t know the source of the private financing
- I don’t know the source of philanthropic contributions
Development
- Local Government grants of $2,000,000
- In 2025, the City of Minneapolis authorized a $100,000 Great Streets loan to Tending the Soil MN for predevelopment expenses related to the project.
- I was not able to find the rest of the local government grants
- I don’t know the source of the private financing
- In 2024, the Minnesota Legislature agreed to allocate $94 million to “design, redesign, renovate, construct, furnish, and equip” the Uptown space to house the job training facility, known as the Rise Up Center.
The flyer goes on to say:
The Rise Up Center’s workforce development programs will recruit and train majority-BIPOC, low-income workers to participate in job training and placement programs. The new space will allow already operational apprenticeships: High Rise Window Cleaners, Community Safety Specialists (CSS), a Green Certified Cleaners Training, and a Commercial Kitchen Certification to grow and expand. These programs provide on-ramps to good jobs and stable careers that benefit individual workers and the community at large. All training programs will address the barriers commonly faced by women, immigrants, people of color, those without a high school degree, and workers with past involvement in the criminal system.
I found an additional flyer from the Minnesota Legislature that described the Rise Up Center in more detail:
My initial reaction to the Rise Up Center is positive. It sounds great to have workforce training available for those who need it, and I love the idea of an operation of that size revitalizing the blighted Uptown. However, I still have a lot of questions:
- What will the annual operating cost of the Center be, and how will it be funded? It seems essential for the Center to be effective that it has a stable, long-term funding source.
- Who will be in charge of the Rise Up Center in the future? Will it be Tending the Soil, MN, or some other organization?
- What is the purpose of the office/administrative space at the Rise Up Center? Per the flyer from the Minnesota Legislature: “Partner organizations will house their offices in the Rise Up Center.” I assume that does not mean the partner organizations will be headquartered at the Rise Up Center, but partner organizations will have office space and staff on site who are there to support the mission of the Rise Up Center.
- Are there plans for curriculum beyond what has already been stated?
- What are the enrollment requirements for “students” of the Rise Up Center?
- Are there any estimates of the economic impact of the Rise Up Center on Uptown? I assume it will be beneficial to the area to have 3,000 students attend the Center annually.
- Who are the other sources of project funding that I could not identify?
I have reached out via email to some of the partner organizations and the Tending The Soil staff, but I have not received a response. The Rise Up Center does not have its own website. I will continue to seek answers to my questions.
***
1 BIPOC is an acronym for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, a term created to specifically highlight the unique experiences of Black and Indigenous communities within the broader group of non-white people.
2 I have a connection to SEIU 26: My dad was a member of this union and eventually became its president during the 1980s. I worked as a window cleaner in the summer of 1978 as a member of the SEIU 26.
3 HF670 -53.14 Subd. 98. Tending the Soil MN 1,500,000. For a grant to Tending the Soil MN to acquire property for and for predesign of a facility that will provide workforce development and job training, housing, and administrative and
public gathering spaces in the city of Minneapolis.
4 HF5242 139.23 Sec. 3. DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT $9,651,000
(a) $9,000,000 the second year is for a grant to Tending the Soil, to design, redesign, renovate, construct, furnish, and equip the Rise Up Center, a building located in Minneapolis, that will house a workforce development and job training center, administrative offices, and a public gathering space. This is a onetime appropriation and is available until June 30, 2029. Notwithstanding Minnesota Statutes, section 16B.98, subdivision 14, the commissioner may use up to one percent of this appropriation for administrative costs.
