St. Barnabas reborn with a new mission
A former hospital that stood vacant for 30 years, the St. Barnabas building was rescued by nonprofit developer Central Community Housing Trust and converted into housing for homeless young people and low-income residents.
Finance & Commerce
April 14, 2005
By Burl Gilyard
It's not every day that a guy gets to attend a grand opening for a project redeveloped so close to the scene of his own birth.
I was born at St. Barnabas Hospital in downtown Minneapolis in 1967.
I have to confess that I don't remember much about the place.
My mother also worked there as a nurse for about a year during the mid-1960s.
My late kid brother, Bret, was also born there in 1969.
Mayor R.T. Rybak is just one of many other local kids born in the same place.
Last Thursday, the Minneapolis based-Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT) held a grand opening for the new St. Barnabas Apartments. The project provides 52 units of housing — 39 for homeless or at-risk youth and 13 units of workforce housing for adults.
The $7.43 million St. Barnabas Apartments is the latest completed development for the increasingly busy nonprofit developer.
The five-story, red-brick building — approximately 32,000 square feet — has been given new life after sitting vacant for the last three decades.
A simple list of all of the partners involved in bringing the project to fruition would fill this column. Based on the information on a project fact sheet, I count 20 partners — in addition to CCHT — on the project.
"A whole lot of hands made this project happen," said Alan Arthur, president of CCHT.
There's a lot of history on the site. In 1870, the Episcopal Churches of Minneapolis established Cottage House, the first hospital in the city. Cottage House later became St. Barnabas.
The original St. Barnabas Hospital was demolished in 1972. The surviving addition that was redeveloped by CCHT dates to 1910.
The sturdy building at 906 Seventh St. S. — at Carew Drive and South Seventh Street — sits between the Metrodome and the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) complex.
St. Barnabas merged with Swedish Hospital in 1970, creating Metropolitan Medical Center (MMC). MMC closed in 1991.
Allina Hospitals and Clinics — which had been initially unaware that it owned the building — donated the building to CCHT.
"The bottom line is that [Hennepin County Commissioner] Peter McLaughlin recognized that this building was empty at the same time we were looking for housing for homeless youth," said Arthur.
When you walk into the lobby, you're immediately struck by design-savvy touches and splashes of color.
That's thanks to the Minnesota chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), which selected the project as its Community Service Project for 2004.
The units are small — 300 to 360 square feet each — but tidy and efficient.
It looks like a great place to start a new life.
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