Irrigate

Springboard for the Arts

Funding Received: 2011
St. Paul, MN
$750,000
Funding Period: 1 year and 5 months
http://springboardforthearts.org/community-development/irrigate/
Dance, Design & Architecture, Film & Media, Folk & Traditional Arts, Literature, Music, Theater, Visual Arts, Other | Economic Development, Transportation | Urban
https://www.facebook.com/SpringboardCreativeExchange
www.twitter.com/@springboardarts
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August 5, 2013

Update

We had a fantastic meeting with the Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC). Because our location has historic designation, we will be working with HPC to ensure we meet their guidelines.

Negotiations are moving forward on the footprint of the land. We presented to the Fort Road Federation board of directors, and they have set a goal to vote at the next meeting.

Community members have invited us to attend upcoming National Night Out events and share our story. We look forward to meeting more members of the West 7th community.

Recent Wins

1. One of the Schmidt Brewery developers, Dominium Development, has started taking rental deposits for the Artist Live/Work Lofts! These lofts will be in the newly renovated Bottle House and Brew House. Tenants will be moving in on January 1, 2014 including our very own Artistic Director, Christi Atkinson!

2. We met with one of the construction companies working with Dominium, and they agreed to provide us with a number of materials that we can reuse for construction. This may include stone, bricks, and metal pulled from the various buildings on the site. These materials will allow us to be good environmental stewards as well as incorporating elements of the Schmidt Brewery's rich history.

3. The West 7th neighborhood is experiencing incredible growth including three new businesses opening just a block away from Blue Ox Mini Golf's site: The Bearded Mermaid Bazaar, a fantastic vintage/retro/antique store, Scarborough Fair Shop, a vintage-inspired clothing and accessories retail store, and Bellies to Babies, a maternity store.

4. The St. Paul City Council unanimously approved our Neighborhood STAR financing! We are grateful for their support of this project.

Insight

Blue Ox Mini Golf has experienced some set-backs as we work with the land owner to agree on the footprint for the site. We have learned that these set-backs are a great learning experience and are part of every start-up. It has been helpful to give everyone involved the benefit of the doubt and work to understand the competing interests. Working through this only strengthens our resolve to be a good community member.

We have had a lot of fun playing other mini golf courses around the Twin Cities metro, and it has been helpful to experience the "check-in" process as we work on developing our own. We realized that playing mini golf should be a requirement of artists wishing to build a hole, and we plan to incorporate this learning into our RFP.