Star Tribune
North Minneapolis aquatics center begins construction while seeking $15M in state aid
On a construction site in north Minneapolis, signs of a future aquatic center are starting to take shape after crews poured concrete for a 25-yard swimming pool.
V3 Sports is building a $97 million aquatics and sports center that the nonprofit’s leaders hope will be a regional destination and boost equity in sports.
“It’s a space built for and by our community that we can have ownership over and be proud of,” said Malik Rucker, V3’s director of strategic partnerships and community engagement and a fifth-generation North Sider. “I hope it sparks further community investments [in north Minneapolis].”
The small nonprofit has big plans to wrap up the first phase of the project, which will have a five-lane teaching pool and other amenities, by next April while launching fundraising now for a second phase that will eventually feature a bigger 50-meter Olympic-sized indoor competition pool — only the third of its kind in Minnesota.
V3 Sports is one of the many nonprofits seeking state funding at the Legislature before lawmakers adjourn next month, hoping it will help pay for projects that serve the public — from food shelves to homeless shelters.
Bills introduced in the House and Senate would allocate $15 million to V3’s project. That’s less than a quarter of the $70 million price tag for the second phase of the project, which will have four courts to host basketball games and other sports or events, and the pool used in the U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha in 2021. The pool was disassembled and will be rebuilt in Minneapolis.
DFL Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, who introduced the Senate bill, said V3’s center, which is in his Minneapolis district, will increase access to swimming lessons for children of color in their own neighborhood. Drowning rates are higher among children of color nationwide. The V3 Center will also be a statewide asset, he said, and hopefully a catalyst for other redevelopment projects.
“I want people to see north Minneapolis is a great place to work, live and play,” Champion said. “This will be a clear shot in the arm so people know that, in a community that has been traditionally disinvested in, there’s an intentional strategy to invest in it.”
V3’s funding request was part of last year’s failed bonding bill and it has widespread support again this year, Champion said. Already, he added, the first phase of the project is employing many contractors and architects from north Minneapolis.
“It’s much more than just a pool,” he said. “We want others to come into north Minneapolis and for them to be able to see the assets and not just the deficits.”
Rucker and Erika Binger, V3’s founding director, are relying on city, county and state money for about a quarter of the project’s costs while seeking private donations, grants and even naming rights of the center to fund the rest of the redevelopment.
“We’re just creating access for youth and families to have a space for them to belong,” said Binger, a former triathlete and a philanthropist whose great-grandfather, 3M executive William McKnight, started the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis, one of the largest private foundations in the state. “I don’t believe economics should play a role in what you have access to in your life.”
She started V3 in 2007 while volunteering as a swim coach and seeing that kids had no public access to indoor pools designed for competition.
V3 began as an all-volunteer nonprofit, hosting summer triathlon programs for about 50 kids at Minneapolis parks each year, addressing health disparities and boosting access to what’s long been a racially segregated sport. Binger envisioned building a state-of-the art facility that could be a regional destination in north Minneapolis, hosting year-round programs and serving more families.
In 2017, V3 Sports bought a former bookbinding warehouse at the prominent intersection of Plymouth Avenue N. and Lyndale Avenue, with a view of the downtown skyline. Once complete, the center will hire about 60 employees and is expected to draw up to 1,000 people a day — from swimmers competing or learning how to swim, to community members working out or hosting graduation parties and other events.
Rucker said the center was specifically designed with input from North Side kids, who encouraged developers to add more indoor basketball courts.
The pandemic delayed construction, which finally began in November. Besides a 25-yard pool, the first phase also includes drop-in child care, a fitness facility and a hydrotherapy pool. The 40,000-square-foot building is slated to open next spring.
Binger said the start of construction on the three-story building in the second phase will depend on fundraising. But the Italian-made Olympic trials pool, which V3 bought at a substantial discount, is sitting in a warehouse ready to be installed.
“We were intentional about getting the best,” Binger said about the much-sought-after pool. “Our community deserves the best.”
The Lynx are in the hot seat.
The team lost Game 3 of the WNBA Finals series against the New York Liberty on Wednesday night 77-80, setting the stage for a decisive match at Target Center on Friday night. Fans in the arena reacted with resounding disappointment after Sabrina Ionescu sunk a three-pointer to break away from the tie game and dashed the Lynx’s chance at forcing overtime.
Before we get to the reactions, first things first: The Lynx set an attendance record, filling Target Center with 19,521 spectators for the first time in franchise history. That’s nearly 500 more than when Caitlin Clark was in town with the Indiana Fever earlier this year.
Despite leading by double digits for much of the game, the Lynx began the fourth quarter with a one-point lead over the Liberty and struggled to stay more than two or three points ahead throughout.
The Liberty took the lead with minutes to go in the fourth quarter and folks were practically despondent.
Of course, there were people who were in it solely for the spectacle. Nothing more.
The Lynx took a commanding lead early in the first quarter and ended the first half in winning position, setting a particularly jovial mood among the fanbase to start the game.
Inside Target Center, arena announcers spent a few minutes before the game harassing Lynx fans — and Liberty fans — who had not yet donned the complementary T-shirts draped over every seat.
DULUTH – The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments will make upgrades to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the summer of 2025, in preparation for the structure to become the premiere route between this city and Superior during reconstruction of the Blatnik Bridge.
Built in 1961, the Blatnik Bridge carries 33,000 vehicles per day along Interstate 535 and Hwy. 53. It will be entirely rebuilt, starting in 2027, with the help of $1 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. MnDOT and WisDOT are splitting the remaining costs of the project, about $4 million each.
According to MnDOT, projects on the Bong Bridge will include spot painting, concrete surface repairs to the bridge abutments, concrete sealer on the deck, replacing rubber strip seal membranes on the main span’s joints and replacing light poles on the bridge and its points of entry. It’s expected to take two months, transportation officials said during a recent meeting at the Superior Public Library.
During this time there will be occasional lane closures, detours at the off-ramps, and for about three weeks the sidewalk path alongside the bridge will be closed.
The Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River, opened to traffic in 1985 and is the lesser-used of the two bridges. Officials said they want to keep maintenance to a minimum on the span during the Blatnik project, which is expected to take four years.
Red Wing will celebrate the grand opening of its first permanent set of pickleball courts next week with an “inaugural play” on the six courts at Colvill Park on the banks of the Mississippi, between a couple of marinas and next to the aquatic center.
Among the first to get to play on the new courts will be David Anderson, who brought pickleball to the local YMCA in 2008, before the nationwide pickleball craze took hold, and Denny Yecke, at 92 the oldest pickleball player in Red Wing.
The inaugural play begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with a rain date of the next day. Afterward will be food and celebration at the Colvill Park Courtyard building.
Tim Sletten, the city’s former police chief, discovered America’s fastest-growing sport a decade ago after he retired. With fellow members of the Red Wing Pickleball Group, he’d play indoors at the local YMCA or outdoors at a local school, on courts made for other sports. But they didn’t have a permanent place, so they approached the city about building one.
When a city feasibility study came up with a high cost, about $350,000, Sletten’s group got together to raise money.
The courts are even opening ahead of schedule, originally set for 2025.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings