Church makes a comeback in new apartment complex

Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of stories exploring how a wave of luxury housing is affecting the community.

In the winter of 2003, Amy Perez Ortiz brought her daughter to the Andrew Riverside Presbyterian Church. She had to bundle her 1-year-old daughter in a snowsuit because the sanctuary was freezing since the northern wall had collapsed.

We had to say goodbye to the building, she said. We sat and looked at the stained glass windows for a long time.

By Christmas, the church was demolished, and Perez Ortizs daughter had to be baptized at the University Avenue YMCA where the congregation has been holding its services ever since.

Almost nine years later, Andrew Riverside is getting a new home at its old address, on the ground floor of a student housing complex coming to the corner of Fourth Street Southeast and Eighth Avenue Southeast in Marcy-Holmes.

College Property Management broke ground on the Elysian on Saturday. Construction starts Tuesday, and the complex is set to open next fall, according to CPM.

The five-story, 56-unit building will house 147 bedrooms, according to city documents.

The church has owned the vacant lot since the original building was razed in 2003.

Henri Mitambo joined the church as a University of Minnesota student just before the building was demolished. Without a permanent home, about a quarter of the congregation left Andrew Riverside, but Mitambo stayed and now serves as chair of the churchs worship committee.

It was difficult, he said. But we realized that the church is about the people.

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Church makes a comeback in new apartment complex