Star Tribune
Duluth Art Institute, pushed out of the historic Depot, finds a new home
DULUTH — The Duluth Art Institute, which spent months in a back-and-forth with its former landlords at the St. Louis County Depot, is moving its gallery to a former Social Security office in a former bank building — less than a half-mile from where it spent decades.
The 3,100-square foot space on the fourth floor of the high-rise office building has two walls of windows overlooking the city’s Central Hillside neighborhood. The vibe is corporate, for now, but executive director Christina Woods had tile samples on hand, plans to paint, and was visualizing the movable gallery walls that will soon be installed.
Classes and studios will remain at the old Carnegie Library the Art Institute owns in Lincoln Park.
After a hunt for a new gallery and the setbacks of COVID-19 — the staff is still playing catch-up with exhibitions that were scheduled but not held — Woods is ready to settle into a period with fewer pivots.
“I’m looking forward to some quiet time to get stuff in place,” she said earlier this week, while showing off the new space.
The Art Institute’s lease at the St. Louis County Depot ends May 1. It plans to open the new gallery by mid-summer — in time for its popular showcase of members’ art. In the meantime, its keepers have plans to expand and renovate the building in Lincoln Park, or potentially acquire another property that could serve as its permanent home. It’s pursuing a bonding request for $5 million from the Legislature.
The new gallery is in the heart of the downtown. Though it’s referred to as the U.S. Bank building, the office building was sold by the bank to 130 West Superior Street LLC in 2021. Its new owners had hoped to deviate from traditional tenants.
“My business partner Chris Priley and I always knew the building’s potential included more than just providing office space,” Tom Stender said in a news release. “We’re honored to partner with such an impactful public institution.”
Robin Washington, president of the Art Institute’s board of directors, said he has liked the positivity he has been getting from the new landlords. When he suggested that an art installation be placed on one of the building’s second-floor rooftops, visible from the gallery window that sits two floors higher, it wasn’t nixed.
The Art Institute has been on the hunt for a new space for more than a year.
The St. Louis County Depot opened as a rail station in 1892 and ended passenger service in 1969. It was spared demolition and instead was named a National Historic Site. It reopened in 1973 as the home of several arts and heritage organizations.
In 2022, the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office doubled back to a long-ignored Minnesota statute requiring a competitive bidding process on government properties. It asked tenants at the historic building, including the Duluth Art Institute, to submit proposals — and it opened the bidding to outsider nonprofit and for-profit companies who might be able to use the on-site stages or a loading dock.
The county was offering just one-year leases, a truncated time period because of capital improvement plans that would require room for workers and vacated work spaces, and the shuffling of tenants.
The initial request for proposals made some tenants, including the Art Institute, nervous. In the end, they were the only organization that had its proposal denied. Another longtime tenant, the Duluth Playhouse, had moved out months earlier.
Mary Tennis, executive director of the St. Louis County Depot, said Wednesday that no one is yet marked to move into the former Art Institute space. They are keeping it open to allow for flexibility as the building goes through its upgrades — which still need funding, but could start as soon as late winter 2025.
NHP is seeking other employers to join their efforts, and is looking to invest in both multifamily and single family projects in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin.
The availability of new apartments allows aging single-family homeowners to sell and downsize, said David Gaddie, a longtime bank executive and chairman of Essentia’s board.
And that house “can be sold to a young family that needs housing, and they can move on up the ladder,” he said.
Developments chosen for loans won’t be targeted toward employees sought by a specific employer. The nonprofit is considering loans to projects in Superior, Wis., and Coleraine, Minn., and expects to offer investments between $2 million and $5 million.
Herman said Essentia has long invested in affordable housing, including a 72-unit project for seniors near its former downtown hospital. Without housing, “good health is almost impossible,” he said, and he’s hopeful other employers will consider housing investments that might yield lower monetary returns, “but a great return” on employee recruits.
The nonprofit’s board includes Gaddie, Herman, former Wells Fargo executive Phil Rolle, interim (and former) Maurice’s CEO George Goldfarb, and former Allete CEO Alan Hodnik.
Star Tribune
Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approves rate increase for Minnesota Power electric bills in Duluth, Iron Range
This is the second rate increase granted to Minnesota Power in two years. In January 2023, the PUC granted a 9.5% increase. That was also much smaller than what the company wanted, though higher than what some consumer advocates asked for.
More than 650 people wrote to the PUC about the rate increase, most in opposition. Many were dated prior to or just after the settlement was announced publicly. Matthew Laveau of Wrenshall said “these added costs are not sustainable to their customers.”
Gretchen Matuszak of Esko wrote she is retired and can hardly keep up with her electric bill as it is now. “You sure make it tough for us old timers!” She wrote. “Give us a break!”
Allete CEO Bethany Owen during a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission meeting in St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday May 9, 2024. ] RENEE JONES SCHNEIDER • renee.jones@startribune.com (Renée Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Minnesota Power has about 150,000 customers across northeastern Minnesota. It serves energy-hungry iron mines, pipelines and the paper industry, all of which make up nearly 70% of the utility’s energy sales.
The company has the lowest monthly bills for the average residential customer of Minnesota’s three investor-owned utilities, and its electric rates for those customers are below the national average, according to 2022 data, the latest reported by the PUC. Its prices for commercial and industrial customers are higher than neighboring states, however, and 95% of the national average.
The utility has shifted its power mix from 95% coal in 2005 to nearly 60% renewable energy now as it works to meet a state law requiring a carbon-free electric grid by 2040.
“You could have helped us last year, you chose not to,” Skraba said.
Skraba was once a Democrat, like many who live in his district and on the Iron Range. But times have changed, he said.
“I think a lot of the Iron Range people are waking up going, ‘I identify more with the other side now,’” Skraba said. “For me, the Democrats were doing things that weren’t germane to rural Minnesota anymore. They were getting more metro, and rural Minnesotans are like, ‘Hey, what about us?’”
Droba said he still believes the district can swing either way. If it’s truly become more conservative, he said a higher-turnout presidential election will show it.
“I really believe that if the winds of change are turning and we are becoming more conservative, this will be the election that really shows that because it is the first presidential year after the redistricting,” Droba said.
