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A new south Minneapolis health clinic broke ground Friday, after years of working towards the facility. 

Southside Community Health Services is launching the new Lake Street clinic, which will be called One Southside. It will be a three-story facility with dental care, a vision clinic, mammography and more. Directors say it will serve 18,000 low-income south Minneapolis residents.

That’s a change from the organization’s current setup — it has medical services located at Green Central Dual Language Elementary School and dental services a mile away.

Executive director Ann Cazaban took a shovel to the lot Friday at a ceremonial groundbreaking.

“We started this in 2018, so I feel like I need to get pinched because it doesn't seem real,” Cazaban said.

Cazaban says staff do their best with the clinic’s current spaces, but sharing space with a school and having separate locations comes with challenges. The school location isn’t set up to be a clinic, she said. It can be hard for community members to find, and it’s not open on the weekends.

“Having full autonomy over our own building, in our own space, and making decisions based on what the community needs and not what our landlord says is going to be very exciting for us,” Cazaban said. 

Southside is covering the $27 million project with grants and government funding, including a 

Sen. Tina Smith attended Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony. 

“If you believe, as I do, that health care is a human right, then the fulfillment of that value is really happening every single day at Southside Community Clinic,” Smith said. 

The clinic is taking over a lot that used to be a Family Dollar store, which was destroyed in the 2020 unrest. It’s one of several lots along Lake Street getting an overhaul in the near future as the corridor continues rebuilding.

Cazaban says construction will start in the coming weeks, with a tentative opening date in the winter of 2026.

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Estelle Timar-Wilcox

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Southside Community Health Services broke ground on its new Minneapolis clinic Friday, after working for years to plan and secure funding for the facility.

South Minneapolis clinic breaks ground

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