Catholic Eldercare to expand with independent living apartments for seniors in northeast Minneapolis

As nonprofit senior services provider Catholic Eldercare continues its growth in northeast Minneapolis with the announcement of a new independent living senior apartment building, it's using the occasion to pause and honor its well-known co-founder— the late former Minneapolis Mayor Al Hofstede — by naming its expanding campus after him.

Catholic Eldercare expects to break ground this summer on a 65-unit, market-rate senior housing building to be located on the southeast corner of Broadway Avenue NE. and 2nd Street. It will mark the latest addition to a campus that already includes three assisted-living residences, an adult day-care program and a 50-bed skilled-nursing center.

The most recent project was a 20,000-square-foot addition to the nursing center, which created a 24-bed transitional-care unit featuring the new Streetcar Café and a rehabilitation wing to provide patient care after surgery or an illness. It opened late last year.

Now the addition of independent living apartments will complete a "continuum of care" range of living options all at one location, placing Catholic Eldercare among just a handful of Twin Cities providers able to make that claim within an urban setting.

The nonprofit's leaders say their goal is one that city leaders share: providing adequate senior housing within the city limits, thus enabling longtime residents to stay in their neighborhoods as they age. Indeed, the loss of seniors to the suburbs due to inadequate housing options has prompted the Minneapolis City Council to launch an initiative aimed at spurring a new senior development in all 13 wards by 2025.

Catholic Eldercare President and CEO Dan Johnson said the new residential building will be aimed squarely at current northeast Minneapolis residents with one- and two-bedroom market-rate apartments and a very modern emphasis on wellness, while also boasting trendy amenities such as a green roof, concierge services and scenic southern views of the Mississippi River and downtown.

"What this really is about is 'aging in community,' " he said. "We're not pulling you out and taking you to the suburbs, or taking you away from what you're comfortable with. Instead, we're providing you with everything you need right in the community you love. It's really too bad that we as a city don't do a better job at that.

While the nonprofit is looking to the future with the continuing campus build-out, it's also honoring its past with the decision to name the campus after a true son of Northeast: the "Albert J. Hofstede Care Center" will be official unveiled next month.

Hofstede, who died in September at 75, served two nonconsecutive terms as Minneapolis mayor in the 1970s, becoming the city's first Catholic mayor as well as its first from Northeast and its youngest. Housing was one of his keenest interests. Hofstede and Sister Ruth Rolland co-founded Catholic Eldercare to answer the need for a skilled-nursing facility in the neighborhood.

That first facility was completed in 1983, incorporating both new construction as well as a 1959-built classroom wing of the former St. Anthony of Padua High School.

The late mayor's wife, Emma Hofstede, is participating in the naming ceremony. She said that while her husband would have been happy with the honor, he would likely savor the moment for just a bit before charging on to the next project.

"He and Sister Ruth Rolland had the ideas and they were always thinking forward," she said. "Al always was thinking, 'What next?' For instance, first he did the nursing home, then the assisted-living units, then new housing at St. Hedwig's Church. In that way, he was a visionary."