What next for West St. Paul YMCA? City seeks retail-residential, but some want a place to work out.
After Hy-Vee halted plans for a grocery store on the West St. Paul YMCA site and sold the land to the city, former members of the Y saw an opportunity for a second chance.
The city has agreed to pay Hy-Vee $5.2 million for the site with hopes of attracting a residential and retail development. But displaced YMCA members would rather it was reborn as a new and improved community center.
“The taxpayers want to be part of that conversation,” said West St. Paul resident Kelly Kratzke. “It’s our money, not their money.”
Kratzke said West St. Paul residents are working with like-minded neighbors in South St. Paul and Mendota Heights to secure the space for recreation, saying there is no good alternative for activities such as pickleball, swimming, racquetball and more.
“The reason that we want this same spot is because there isn’t any other land available in West St. Paul,” Kratzke said. “We are locked in. I don’t know where else it would go if it didn’t go there.”
Though the project isn’t on tonight’s City Council agenda, the former YMCA members are planning to speak out in hopes of persuading council members to rethink their plans. The council meets at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of the month.
“We don’t have a community center, we don’t have a movie theater, we don’t we have one sheet of ice here for all the communities,” Kratzke said.
The city hopes to select a developer for the site at the Nov. 14 city council meeting, according to city manager Nate Burkett.
“We have kind of a concept idea of what it’s going to look like, and as we move forward, there’ll be a reasonable amount of public engagement,” Burkett said.
The city is also planning a feasibility study to determine the demand for a community center as part of other future projects, Burkett said.
The city approved a purchase agreement for the property Aug. 8 with conceptual plans for apartments, restaurants and retail. They also hope to provide space for a park, open plaza and more.
Hy-Vee initially bought the 10 acre site on Thompson Avenue just east of South Robert Street for $3.8 million in 2019. Development plans fell through earlier this year because the site did not fit into a new company strategy that centers around building larger stores and putting more distance between future locations.
Hy-Vee received city approvals needed to redevelop the site and tore down the YMCA building. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based grocery store chain had planned a 68,400-square-foot supermarket with a liquor store, restaurant with outdoor seating, pharmacy with drive-up pickup and a gas station.
