Grace Center is a building owned and managed by a Minnesota 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization called Grace Center for Community Life. The vision for Grace Center is to create a community center of empowering and life-giving activities focused on education, faith, and service.
Space in the 60,000-square-foot building is rented to New City School (a K-8 public charter school) and to Grace Lutheran Church of Northeast Minneapolis.
Community groups use the gym for soccer and basketball evenings and on weekends. Other spaces are used by performing-arts groups for rehearsals, AA meetings, a Girls on the Run fitness program, a quilting & crafts group, and community groups for meetings.
History of Grace Center:
Grace Center is located in the former Holland Elementary School, which was built in 1968. It is a two-story structure of 60,000 square feet, located on 2.9 acres of land. The school was closed in 2005 and sat vacant for nearly five years. When the Minneapolis School District opted to sell the school property, three local churches merged, pooled their resources, and purchased the building in 2010 for their new church building, originally known as Northeast Community Lutheran Church, now known as Grace Lutheran Church of Northeast Minneapolis.
In 2009, the church and the Minneapolis Area Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) formed a new nonprofit corporation (the NE Lutheran Building Corporation) to purchase, own, and operate the building. A board of directors is the governing body. Since its origin, the corporation changed its name to Grace Center for Community Life. By 2012, Grace Center completed a major renovation and repair project that included the HVAC system, a commercial kitchen, and a gathering place for worship. Since then, a significant landscaping project to remove blacktop and to infiltrate stormwater runoff via rain gardens was completed. An inclusive playground, “Fair Play,” was completed in 2017 thanks to generous donations from the NE Minneapolis Lions Club, a Hennepin County Youth Sports grant, and community members. A 6,000-square-foot addition was completed in 2024 to provide additional classroom space for New City School.
Current tenants
Current tenants include New City School (a public K-8 charter school) and Grace Lutheran Church of Northeast Minneapolis, which sponsors the Little Kitchen Food Shelf.
Little Kitchen Food Shelf’s Mission:
Fighting food insecurity by engaging food-shelf volunteers, grants, and donations from the greater community to serve the hungry with respect and dignity.