Tre Ministries details plan to redevelop block at 18th & Minnesota

By Rosemary McCoy and Jodi Schwan

A faith-based nonprofit plans to massively transform a central Sioux Falls neighborhood block, while impacting the lives of young adults.

Tre Ministries has outgrown its home and wants to expand its offerings to include housing for young adults in a Christian leadership program.

“We’re seeing the growth in Tre, and we’re ready to walk into the next phase,” said Sandy Berven, who founded Tre Ministries in 2018 in the former Tre Lounge — hence the name. It moved to 900 W. 11th St. in 2019.

The organization is working to buy the properties from 18th to 19th streets between Minnesota and Dakota avenues from Johnson Properties. The block is a mix of vacant land, four empty houses, a former flower shop and three commercial buildings.

The concept for the development would dramatically change the landscape of the area.

The plan is still being developed, but according to the initial information that was shared at a meeting earlier this week with residents of the All Saints neighborhood, the site would be cleared, and the new campus would include two multistory buildings.

All renderings are by JLG Architects and are preliminary and subject to change.

Along Minnesota Avenue, the plan is to build a five-story mixed-use building, anchored by the gathering space for Tre Ministries, with space for other retail and office users. The upper floor would be market-rate apartments not tied to the Tre Living program envisioned for the rest of the site.

Housing for that program would wrap around 18th Street to Dakota Avenue and be geared toward young adults participating in Tre Ministries’ leadership development program.

A parking structure would be located in the middle of the site and include one level of underground parking with two stories above ground.

“We have a lot of young adults that are looking not only for housing but housing that provides community,” Berven said. “On the Dakota side is our Christian leadership for young adults to connect not just to each other but also in the city. It will be a 12- to 18-month program that will walk them through many different areas of their life.”

Tre Ministries currently offers a piece of the future program that connects young adults so they can live together and grow. “We’ve found that it’s the best setting for their growth,” she said.

The overall ministry focuses on serving those age 18 to 30, with most of them in their upper 20s, Berven said.

Some are college students, and other are working in the community. Tre provides space for them to study together or hold meetings, gather for Bible study, attend workshops or just hang out.

“This vision is always to create a safe space for young adults,” Berven said. “We need to meet the needs, whether they’re economic or their faith background. It’s an invitation to belong to a community with an expectation that they’re finding their purpose and hope, and for us that’s through Jesus Christ. The people that walk through our doors are Christian and non-Christian, believers and nonbelievers. It’s a little bit of everything.”

Monday night’s neighborhood meeting was “the first chance the neighbors had to hear about the project,” said Diane deKoeyer, a neighborhood and preservation planner with the city of Sioux Falls. “It was about what we the city expected it to be in terms of the kinds of questions and concerns, mostly about traffic.”

The proposal involves vacating a small portion of 19th Street between Dakota and Minnesota avenues, which “generally is an issue” in neighborhoods, she said.

“There are things that need to be reviewed and alternatives to look at primarily with traffic.”

Because the plan calls for a three-story residential building along Dakota, the parking ramp would be screened and only slightly visible in some areas, she said.

There would be considerable demolition involved, including vacant houses along Dakota Avenue and commercial buildings along Minnesota Avenue and 18th Street, including the brick building that served as a former Texaco gas station.

“That’s unfortunate because it is such a cool building,” deKoeyer said. “But that isn’t protected as a historic building, so there’s really nothing we can do for that unless somebody wants to move it, and I don’t know if that’s feasible because it’s a brick building.”

Berven acknowledged the character of the brick buildings and said there has been talk about incorporating the bricks into the new campus.

Big picture, though, “I do think it’s a great program that they have,” deKoeyer said. “I didn’t hear any concerns from the neighborhood saying they didn’t want something like this.”

Neighbors arrived at this week’s meeting not knowing what to expect and don’t have a clear consensus on how they feel about the proposal, said Katrina Lehr-McKinnney, who leads the All Saints Neighborhood Association.

“But I know people just don’t want vacant property across the street from them,” she said. “We want people living there. Yes, the houses are in really rough shape, but they’re in really rough shape because they purposefully were neglected for a really long time.”

While Tre Ministries is the lead developer on the project, the plan is to involve additional investors and donors. So far, the group has not asked for tax increment financing or other public incentives and has started the process to request rezoning under the city’s new midtown mixed-use option.

“From my perspective, my business concern is that it’s a sustainable business and that whatever buildings and residential facilities they build, if that were to go away in 10 years or five or 15 or 20, what is left behind?” Lehr-McKinnney said, while adding that “it sounds to me like they are taking some time to think about how things look aesthetically, and they’re asking the right kinds of questions.”

There’s a chance the rezoning could go to the Sioux Falls Planning Commission in April, or it could be deferred as the development team meets with city departments such as traffic engineering.

“We probably will hold another neighborhood meeting because of the concerns from neighbors we want to be able to respond to,” deKoeyer said. “There’s still a lot to figure out. It’s a big project, and there’s a lot of moving parts.”

Berven also said another neighborhood meeting is likely.

Many young adults were at Monday night’s gathering, she said.

“What’s really been fun in the whole project, along with the Dakota side, with the historic side, is to help them understand you get to be part of a neighborhood, to be part of the association and get to know about your neighborhood,” Berven said.

“I’m certain you’ll see more involvement from them. We have some ideas (about having them involved), and that will continue to show as we move forward.”

Securing funding for the project is another piece of the process.

“That’s a big one,” Berven acknowledged. “That’s one that we’ll lay out more in the next couple of months. We’re looking for possible investors and mostly donors.”

If all those pieces come together, the project could break ground next spring and open the following year, she said.