Nonprofit Raising Funds To Buy Former Oblivion CoffeeBar in St. Cloud

(KNSI) – Project 37 announced earlier this week that it intends to buy a 7th Avenue property in downtown St. Cloud, the site of the former Oblivion CoffeeBar and Mercantile store.

The nonprofit has begun a campaign to raise $75,000 to allow it to begin an extensive remodeling. Project 37 Director Anna Bovitz tells KNSI News her organization has plans for both stories of the building.

“The $75,000, it gets us everything we need for the coffee shop. It gets us furniture. There’s an office space upstairs we’d be able to remodel to turn into a classroom, and we’d be able to use those offices to run Project 37 out of. There’s a lot of remodeling, overall, that we’d like to do to make it easier for us to use for our purposes.”

Those purposes include a vision of downtown St. Cloud that would be more welcoming for younger residents. Project 37 is the St. Cloud chapter of the Independent Music Collaborative of Central Minnesota. It brings in bands from across the Midwest for shows. The group has organized over 50 since 2022. P37 considers it a point of pride that its first punk-themed night became a hit among Sartell High School students.

Board Member Jon Schulte hopes having a space of their own downtown is a giant step towards their goals. “We’re advocating for getting all ages and the youth involved, as far as going to shows, and also for participating and performing in the shows. There just isn’t a place to do that, and in order for that to happen, it has to be a sober and hopefully also safe environment.”

So, what would the new coffee shop feel like? Board member Angela Ringsmuth hopes for something similar in tone to the old Java Joint, which was part of the downtown scene for most of the 1990s and 2000s. Ringsmuth says Oblivion owner Hailey Koep is supporting the move.

“She’s helping us reopen the building for a couple of fundraisers that we’re doing. So, for two different nights, we’re gonna actually have the building open for coffee and let people kind of see what our dream is.”

A link to donate or pledge a future contribution is here.

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