Star Tribune
St. Paul’s Walker West Music Academy to expand earlier than expected, thanks to $2.5M loan
A $2.5 million building sale in St. Paul’s Summit-University neighborhood means the growing Walker West Music Academy will be moving into bigger digs earlier than expected.
Model Cities of St. Paul, which works on health, housing and economic development issues in the inner city, bought the former Wilder Foundation building at 650 Marshall Av. on behalf of Walker West to serve as the music school’s new home. Walker West is set to close the purchase Tuesday.
Praising the 35-year-old music school as a community treasure, Model Cities CEO Kizzy Downie said her organization’s community development arm decided to ensure Walker West’s growth plans weren’t derailed as it waited on potential state funding.
“We did not want Walker West to miss this opportunity,” she said. “They provide an amazing asset to the community. It aligns well with who we are as an organization.”
Braxton Haulcy, Walker West’s executive director, said Model Cities’ move to purchase the site and turn it over to the music school will allow construction work to begin this fall. The school plans to move some of its music camps into the building this summer.
“This was a match made in heaven,” Haulcy said.
The purchase is a bridge transaction while Walker West continues its $10.4 million capital campaign to expand its facilities and programming. That campaign includes a request for $5.4 million from the Legislature that would go toward the purchase and building remodel, Haulcy said. Walker West will repay Model Cities once state funding and other sources are secured, he said.
The purchase allows Walker West to take possession of the property and begin its transformation before the Legislature acts. In addition to the Model Cities money, Walker West has raised about $1.5 million.
“We knew there might be some delays at the Legislature in approving the funds for the building,” Haulcy said. “We wanted to have a Plan B. This allows us to at least get the building, and then pay Model Cities back, and avoid the disruption.”
Downie said helping Walker West meet its goals to better serve the community meshes with what Model Cities has been doing since its founding in St. Paul in 1967.
The music school was started in 1988 by the Rev. Carl Walker and Grant West and has outgrown its current facility. That, coupled with its 10-year lease expiring in 2023, made the move necessary, Haulcy said. When Walker West moved from its previous building at 777 Selby Av., it had about 150 students enrolled. Currently, that number is about 300.
Haulcy has said he hopes the school can accommodate between 500 and 600 students a week in the new facility. Between events and classes, it has more than 5,700 program participants.
Walker West currently uses about 6,000 square feet of space at 760 Selby Av. The former Wilder building has more than 16,000.
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.
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