Local Native American nonprofits navigate location changes
New Life Presbyterian Church building for sale following merger
The American Indian Family Center and the Montessori American Indian Childcare Center navigate change as the owners of their Roseville location put the building up for sale.
The New Life Presbyterian Church building, located at 965 Larpenteur Ave. W in Roseville, is on the market following a merger with Falcon Heights United Church of Christ.
Over the past year, the two congregations gradually merged and developed a new shared vision for ministry together. The new congregation—dually affiliated with both the United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church USA—began worshipping at the Falcon Heights UCC location at 1795 Holton St. permanently in January 2026. The pastors of both churches will continue serving the new congregation together under a shared leadership model.
On Feb. 1, the freshly formed congregation chose a new name: Garden Community Church, inspired by their location on the corner of Garden Avenue and Holton Street in Falcon Heights.
With this merger, the congregation does not intend to keep the Roseville church property at 965 Larpenteur Ave. W. Three Native American nonprofit organizations were considering purchasing it in order to form the Oyate Ota Center, but those plans have since changed and the group has disbanded.
Now, the New Life Presbyterian Church building is on the commercial market listed for $6.3 million.
The Oyate Ota Center
The American Indian Family Center, the Interfaith Action Department of Indian Work, and the Montessori American Indian Childcare Center were collaborating in an effort to form the Oyate Ota Center, which means “The People’s Place” in the Dakota Language.
The new center planned to offer a variety of services including housing support, job and career training, economic mobility assistance, childcare, a food shelf, and health and family assistance for pre-natal through elder care. These are all services currently being provided by the three organizations separately.
The Montessori American Indian Childcare Center has been renting space from New Life Presbyterian since September 2024 and the American Indian Family Center became tenants in 2025. AIFC also has a location at 579 Wells St. in Saint Paul.
The Department of Indian Work was planning to join them in the new Oyate Ota Center if the group purchased the building together. This winter, however, before a purchase agreement was finalized, the nonprofit boards forming the Oyate Ota Center decided not to purchase the New Life building.
What happened?
For the Interfaith Action DIW, this was due to multiple factors, “most notable the mounting cost estimates for retrofitting the property to meet our needs as a food shelf,” DIW board member Bill Brady said in an email.
DIW also has a food shelf located at 3080 Centerville Road in Little Canada.
The American Indian Family Center came to their own conclusion about not moving forward with the purchase. After conducting a community needs assessment and a fundraising assessment with a consultant, the AIFC board decided that purchasing the building would not be feasible.
“We have learned through getting feedback from the community, our staff, our elders, our youth, that getting back together in one location is really going to be important and getting into a location closer to where our families reside,” said Kristin Kinney, Executive Director at AIFC.
Their organization has been splitting operations between the building they own on Wells Street in Saint Paul and the Roseville location. Both spaces are overcapacity as they serve around 4,000 clients.
Their services include support for mental health, housing, employment, addiction recovery, and youth and elders. They also have a relationship with Belwin Conservancy in Afton where they hold traditional ceremonies and healing circles, as well as have their own sweat lodge. Transportation to that location has been a challenge for some in their community, so they are dreaming of a closer location with space for these activities.
“It would be great if we had all of that in one location here on the east side of St. Paul. Anytime you do those things like sweats and ceremonies, you're purifying the land underneath you. You're purifying energy around you. I think it could be a good addition to St. Paul to have some more healing going on in it,” said Jessica Gourneau, Behavioral Health Director at AIFC and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.
For the Montessori American Indian Childcare Center, the decision not to pursue the purchase was a disappointment.
“It is deeply disheartening for us at MIACC and for our American Indian community in general,” said Janice LaFloe, Executive Director of MAICC.
They plan to continue to serve children and families in the Roseville location as long as they can. LaFloe said the daycare has a five-year lease, and they hope the new owner of the building will honor it.
What’s next?
AIFC doesn’t know how quickly they’ll need to move out after the sale of the New Life Presbyterian building. In the meantime, they’re making plans to retrofit and move back into the Wells Street location before finding a larger, long-term solution.
AIFC has already invested money into renovating the New Life building, which they had expected to be reimbursed from grant funding awarded to them for the Oyate Ota Center. These funds were awarded through the Metropolitan Council—to be dispersed through Roseville’s Economic Development Authority—and a Ramsey County Community Development Block Grant.
None of this funding has been dispersed to AIFC, and they are currently working with the City of Roseville and Ramsey County to explore their options. Based on the terms of the lease with New Life Presbyterian, they expect to receive some funds from the sale of the building to cover some of those sunk costs, according to Kinney.
“One thing that I'm very certain of is that the Family Center, Montessori, Department of Indian Work will continue to operate in strong ways. We're going to keep meeting the needs of our community members on the east side. … As I take a look at what we're doing at the Family Center, when I see what Montessori is doing, and DIW—it's all really truly fantastic work. And I know it's going to continue in a great way. Our brightest days are ahead still. I firmly believe that,” said Nichlas Emmons, chair of the board for AIFC.
The future of the community garden on site, which is managed by the church, is unknown at this time.
The leadership of New Life Presbyterian and Falcon Heights UCC (now Garden Community Church) declined to comment.
Learn More
View the real estate listing for 965 Larpenteur Ave. W:
Come to the upcoming AIFC Open House:
