A Community Update on YMCA Wellness Center and Rail Corridor Redevelopment Downtown

Dave Hengel, Executive Director
July 2024

A few months back, I shared the exciting news that Greater Bemidji had entered a strategic partnership with the YMCA in Fargo (now called the YMCA of the Northern Sky) to help us design and operate the wellness center in downtown Bemidji. Every day since that announcement, it has become clearer to me that we made the right choice. Why? Because of what I have both seen and heard from the leadership of the YMCA of the Northern Sky.

They are mission-focused and proudly share, “At the YMCA of the Northern Sky, we measure the success by how well we engage in our three areas of focus: Youth Development, Healthy Living and Social Responsibility. A strong community can only be achieved when we invest in our kids, our health and our neighbors. Our programs, services and initiatives enable kids to
realize their potential, offer ways for families to have fun together, empower people to be healthier in spirit, mind and body; prepare people for employment, welcome and embrace newcomers and help foster a community-wide service ethic. The YMCA is for everyone.”

These are not just words – I have personally seen the YMCA in action. I’m excited what they will bring to our community members.

The selection of the YMCA also unleashed a storm of action around the wellness center and rail corridor development project. Site planning (including environmental cleanup) work is being programmed, architects are working closely with the YMCA leadership on facility design, construction and operational budgets are being put in place, the volunteer fundraising team has re-engaged and Greater Bemidji is reaching out to developers to encourage private sector investment on the site. I’d like to take this space to update the community on the work being done.

Site Preparation and Contamination Cleanup Planning – The rail corridor is a very important site for our community. Adjacent to downtown and along the Mississippi River, it provides an opportunity to support significant commercial, mixed-use, and residential development. Unfortunately, it is also a very difficult site to build on. It is both environmentally contaminated
and has virtually no public infrastructure in place. The City of Bemidji has worked with the Saint Paul Port Authority to assess the site and propose remedies to make the area shovel-ready for development. They have already sought and received Minnesota Pollution Control Agency support for the plan for cleaning up the site. Over the next four months, the City of Bemidji will consider submitting two grant applications to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development to begin the process of contamination cleanup and site preparation. If all goes as planned, we are expecting to begin site work next spring.

Facility Planning – For the last three months, Greater Bemidji has engaged a team of architects and engineers to begin the work of facility design. The YMCA’s experience in operating several wellness facilities has been very valuable in the design stage.

The team is balancing several factors, including:

• What are our community’s greatest needs? Information gathered by Sanford Health’s extensive public input process is proving to be extremely valuable for the design team;
• What can our community afford? Based on its work to date, Greater Bemidji has created a target of a $35 million facility. The design team is tasked with working backwards and determining how to most efficiently meet as many community needs as possible within our budget. What is clear is we will have to make some choices on phasing the original plan. We know that inflation has had a very significant impact on construction costs. Simply, what was we could build in 2018 simply is not possible today. Phasing will be required – yet we remained committed to the long-term vision.
• What is financially sustainable operationally? Ultimately, not all community needs will be met by one facility. We will only build what can be sustained through the YMCA’s business model.

In the coming months, an initial design concept will be unveiled for public input. I encourage you to share your thoughts.

Private Sector Investment – We remain confident the site will spur $50+ million in private investment, creating critical tax base for the Bemidji community. Greater Bemidji is identifying developers interested in a public-private partnership to develop the corridor. There will be three shovel-ready development sites in the area – great spots for residential and commercial development alike. We are confident it will be able to announce a development partner in the next several weeks. It’ll be great news for the project, and for the community. Fundraising for the Wellness Center – Today I am more confident than ever that the community
vision can be a reality. We can have a wellness center affordable to all our community member. We can entice significant private sector development in our downtown. We can clean up a contaminated site in the heart of our community. We can support our downtown’s vibrancy by encouraging additional tourism in our community.

Increasingly, it is looking like all of this is possible – ultimately, will come down to us. Will our community step forward and raise roughly an additional $7 million? Our volunteer fundraising team is putting plans in place in hopes to do just that.

Our pace-setter campaign was extremely successful. Along with Sanford Health’s commitment of $10 million, a handful of community-minded businesses, families and individuals have pledged an additional $8 million.  I can’t wait until I am able to share the names of the donors who have made all this work possible. They deeply care about Bemidji.

Now it is up to all of us.

Overall, progress on the YMCA and rail corridor redevelopment has been swift. Our target is to have the site ready for development by next summer. Provided we’re able to raise the remaining funds, the YMCA will be set to break ground shortly thereafter.

Let me close by expressing my thanks. Thank you to the team working to make this a reality, particularly the YMCA of the Northern Sky. Thank you to the Bemidji City Council and staff for their partnership in moving this forward. Thank you to all those who have already pledged financial support for the vision. Thank you to our partners and volunteers. Finally, thank you to the Board of Directors of Greater Bemidji for keeping this vision alive.

A project like this truly takes a community. I’m deeply grateful.