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The Pipestone Economic Development Authority is purchasing the former Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pipestone. It plans to make the property available for a family childcare facility. Photo by Kyle Kuphal
The Pipestone Economic Development Authority (EDA) is purchasing the former Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pipestone and plans to make it ready for use as a daycare.
The EDA held a special meeting on July 11 to discuss the purchase of the property in closed session, which is allowed by state statute. When it reopened the meeting, according to the minutes, the EDA Board instructed EDA Director Justin Schroyer to negotiate a purchase price. Schroyer said the church accepted an offer of $62,500 on July 16 and the sale is expected to close in September.
Schroyer said a local facilities team working with First Children’s Finance’s Rural Child Care Innovation Program (RCCIP), First Children’s Finance representatives and an architect hired by the Southwest Initiative Foundation, toured multiple buildings including the former Bomgaars and Hartquist Funeral & Cremation Services buildings in June. Utilization of existing buildings for a daycare was among the ideas put forth at a town hall meeting organized by First Children’s Finance last fall.
The church building rose to the top of the list of available spaces because it’s in a residentially zoned district, the size is right, the price was right and it will require little remodeling, Schroyer said. He said the work that does need to be done includes upgrading the bathrooms, adding an egress window in the basement, adding a playground and putting a fence around it.
When the updates are complete, the plan is to make the property a single-family residence, which is why the residential zoning was important. Schroyer said no one will live there, but as a single-family residence, it can be used for a family childcare facility. The EDA would own it and lease it for a reasonable price to someone who will operate it as a daycare, similar to a business incubator space.
“If they really love it, maybe we’ll sell it to them and move on to a bigger project,” Schroyer said. “We’ve got options.”
Among those options, he said, is to use it for affordable housing if the daycare doesn’t work out.
Schroyer said whoever leases it would have to be opening a new childcare rather than moving an existing childcare to a new site. The goal is to add new local childcare openings and help create a new business owner. No childcare provider has been lined up yet to lease the space and anyone interested should contact Schroyer at the city office building.
Schroyer said he thought the updates to the space could be completed this year and it could potentially open as a daycare in early 2026.