Demolition Begins on Popular 59-Year Old Minnesota Building

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It's a building that's been standing for nearly 60 years in Minnesota, but it's now being reduced to a pile of rubble.

The old saying is that the only constant in life is change, and that's sure the case for this once-popular 59-year-old building here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes that has reached the end of its life, and is being demolished for a new development.

The building in question is the former YMCA building in downtown Rochester, Minnesota. It was sold last year to a developer who plans to build a new apartment building on that site on 1st Avenue Southwest, just a block west of South Broadway Avenue. The photo below shows what it looked like for nearly 60 years.

But that massive building, which first opened as the Rochester YMCA way back in 1964, has already started to be torn down. According to a story in Finance & Commerce, Enclave, a development company based in Fargo, North Dakota, and with offices in Minneapolis, closed on that property back in November for $5.9 million.

While the sale was first announced in February of 2023, the building had been sitting vacant since the YMCA itself closed back in January 2022.  Enclave originally said demolition on the property just a few blocks from Mayo Clinic's downtown campus, is was expected to begin in late 2023, but the first bricks started falling just this week.

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So what's going up in its place? That would be a new apartment building known as 'First & Banks.' It's a multi-use development that Finance & Commerce says will feature 219 units and will also 'offer amenities ranging from a fitness and yoga studio to clubroom and lounge areas.'

Finance & Commerce noted that while the Rochester Planning and Zoning Commission signed off on the project’s site development plan back in September, the building permit for the new development still needs approval by the city. Construction is set to begin later in 2024.

In the end, the Rochester YMCA building will have lasted nearly 60 years before it meets its ultimate fate. It's not the only once-popular business and building to have gone away, of course. Keep scrolling to check out some things from the year you were born that DON'T exist anymore!

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