Advertisement

Financing delays push back reopening of Soap Factory to mid-2019

September 21, 2018 at 1:12AM

The Soap Factory, a 30-year-old experimental arts organization in Minneapolis that closed last September for construction work, has delayed its reopening for a third time, with a target now of mid-2019.

Housed in an old manufacturing space near the downtown riverfront at 514 SE. 2nd St., the Soap was scheduled to reopen May 5, then that date was pushed back to Oct. 28.

Executive Director Bill Mague blamed the new federal tax law, in part. He said the law, passed in December, created uncertainty in the lending industry that caused delays in getting financing approved.

"Owning a 130-year-old building that needs $6 million worth of work is not an insignificant hurdle, even for a 30-year-old organization," said Mague. "We don't live in a society that values arts enough."

Tax-credit changes for rehabilitation of historic buildings in particular caused "a hiccup that nobody anticipated," Mague said, adding that the organization was confident it could resume construction this fall and complete the work by the second quarter of 2019.

Programming planned this season has been rescheduled for late 2019 and 2020. The Soap will announce a new schedule this winter, he said.

The organization serves as a creative hub for visual artists. Financial problems forced it to take a hiatus in 2016 after the departure of Ben Heywood, longtime executive director.

Mague, who had been a vice president at nonprofit developer Artspace, came aboard in April 2016 and has been working with the board of directors on a restructuring.

Advertisement
Advertisement

In June, the Soap hired a new artistic director, Ellie Kevorkian, who had worked at Omaha's Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts.

She remains on the payroll, Mague said, "getting the lay of the land" in Minneapolis and traveling to New York to network on behalf of the organization.

612-673-4438 • Twitter: @AliciaEler

about the writer

about the writer

Alicia Eler

Critic / Reporter

Alicia Eler is the Minnesota Star Tribune's visual art reporter and critic, and author of the book “The Selfie Generation. | Pronouns: she/they ”

See Moreicon

More from Minnesota Star Tribune

See More
In this photo taken Monday, March 6, 2017, in San Francisco, released confidential files by The University of California of a sexual misconduct case, like this one against UC Santa Cruz Latin Studies professor Hector Perla is shown. Perla was accused of raping a student during a wine-tasting outing in June 2015. Some of the files are so heavily redacted that on many pages no words are visible. Perla is one of 113 UC employees found to have violated the system's sexual misconduct policies in rece

We respect the desire of some tipsters to remain anonymous, and have put in place ways to contact reporters and editors to ensure the communication will be private and secure.

card image
Advertisement
Advertisement

To leave a comment, .

Advertisement