By Scott Carlson
Luther Seminary announced its board of directors has voted unanimously to sell its entire campus site in St. Anthony Park and “begin shifting to a more flexible model.”
In a news release dated June 10, seminary representatives said, “Luther Seminary will initiate a process to seek new space in the Twin Cities area that aligns with its needs going forward and helps maintain the seminary’s enduring commitment to ensuring Christian leaders.”
“Our mission to educate leaders for Christian communities remains as vital and necessary as ever,” Luther Seminary President Robin Steinke said in a statement. “To remain sustainable over the long term, how we fulfill this mission will be transformed going forward.
“Seeking new space and shifting to a more nimble model will allow us to steward our resources more effectively and serve students and learners from all walks of life.”
Luther Seminary anticipates remaining on its current campus, which abuts Como Avenue, through the 2026-2027 school year. It the meantime, they will look for new space that will better meet its needs around teaching, learning, scholarship and community — including an ongoing commitment to “strategic, periodic in-person learning.”
Angie Hanson, a 2006 master’s graduate from Luther Seminary, said the institution’s intentions to sell the campus “breaks my heart.”
“When I started in 2004, it was a vibrant community, with students attending classes, sharing meals and having deep and meaningful conversations,” Hanson told the Bugle. “I met my husband in the library and got married in the chapel in Northwestern Hall.
“But over the past 20+ years of being a neighbor, I’ve watched the seminary turn into a husk of its former self, reflecting both a move toward online learning and the general decline in ELCA membership and mainline denominations in general,” said Hanson, who lives in St. Anthony Park just a few blocks from the seminary. “Students are mostly gone, buildings are abandoned, and it feels empty and dead.
“The sale of the remaining campus is sad, but it is a loss I’ve been mourning for years,” Hanson added.
The seminary’s intentions to sell the entire campus is the latest in a several-year saga by the religious institution to try and reconfigure its space needs because of a declining on-campus student enrollment.
The seminary’s board of directors first approved a future sale of the 15-acre Lower Campus in May 2018 as part of an overall campus redesign, with the goal of reinvesting the proceeds from the sale to support the seminary’s mission.
But since then, at least two different redevelopment plans have stalled with one disrupted, in part, by changing general business market conditions stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year, the seminary contracted to sell its lower campus parcel to Edina-based developer Lifestyle Communities.
Lifestyle Communities is a developer of multifamily, active-adult and senior housing and is well known to St. Anthony Park. It previously built the Zvago Cooperative, an active-adult community located next to Gullixson Hall at the east end of the seminary campus.
Asked how the latest sale announcement affects the seminary’s current discussions with Lifestyle Communities, spokeswoman Rachel Farris said, “At this time, we don’t anticipate that the announcement will impact plans for the Lower Campus.”
In a statement, Ramsey County District 3 Commissioner Garrison McMurtrey said he was sad the seminary will be leaving the neighborhood.
“Luther Seminary has been a pivotal steward in our community for over 100 years,” McMurtrey said. But he added, “I respect their decision as they seek a new space to meet their needs.
“This transition also presents a unique opportunity for what’s to come,” he continued. “Although the city is the land use authority for this property, I am looking forward to working with neighbors, city and state partners, and the residents of St. Anthony Park to ensure that we hear their ideas, concerns and questions.
“I believe we have a once-in-a- generation opportunity to usher in new development that meets the needs of our community and ensures we are building an affordable, sustainable and thriving neighborhood for generations to come.”
Scott Carlson is managing editor of the Park Bugle.
Photo cutline: Luther Seminary representatives are looking to sell its entire campus. Photo by Janet Wight.
David M Johnson • Jul 6, 2025 at 5:08 pm
As a 1971 alumnus of Luther Seminary, I, too, am sad about the decline & forthcoming sale of the campus. However, I see this as a result of an equivocating uncertainty as to what Is the Word of God? Luther Seminary & the ELCA in its decline have taken their cues more from the ever-changing norms of society than the Bible as written. This is seen in their understanding of human sexuality, the roles of men & women in ministry, evangelizing the lost (dare we use that term ‘lost’?); in general, accommodating to the norms & lifestyles of today’s culture rather than challenging it with the message of repentance from sin & faith in Jesus.
The clarion call to repentance & holy living has been compromised & well nigh lost for many years. Accommodation & compromise rules the day. God’s Word has been manipulated & tinkered with to such an extent that many are at a loss to say what it is.
But, God’s Word still Is & exists! As Jesus said, “Heaven & Earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) Following His Word inspires the engine of faith in our heart, grows, & bears good fruit.