Downtown Building Update

YWCA Minneapolis has been at 1130 Nicollet Mall since 1929 — and in our current building for nearly fifty years. This location is a testament to committed, community-minded women who pushed for equal rights and racial justice and created a welcoming, caring space for young children and their families.

In fall 2023, we made the difficult decision to consolidate our health and wellness operations to our Midtown location and pursue the sale of our Downtown and Uptown locations. From the start, we prioritized proposals that allowed us to keep our Downtown Early Childhood Education Center at this location and ensure the new owners mirrored our commitment to serving the community. I'm pleased to announce we’ll be able to do just that. St. David's Center for Child & Family Development will be the new owner of 1130 Nicollet Mall, and we'll be leasing space to keep our early childhood education center right here.

St. David's Center is a leader in specialized early education, pediatric therapies and mental health care in Minnesota — and there is a great need for what they do. St. David's Center has a waiting list of nearly 2,000 children! To know that 124,000 square feet will be dedicated to caring for the mental health and wellbeing of children and families eases the sense of loss. Plus, our YWCA Minneapolis children at our Downtown location will have ready access to St. David's Center services.

Over the course of 132 years, YWCA Minneapolis has had many homes — on South Fourth Street, South Seventh, Marquette Avenue South, Lyman Lodge and the Ruth Hawkins Center, among others. Each differed in size and structure, focus and function. Yet every space reflected the spirit of our mission because YWCA Minneapolis is more than a building or a single program. We're a legacy of dedicated social justice advocates who adapt to the changing times, and we're doing that now.

We hope you'll join us as we build on the past and pave a new way forward together.

Shelley Carthen Watson
President and CEO
YWCA Minneapolis