New Business Opening At 53rd and Lyndale

The long-empty former ballroom on the 5300 block of Lyndale is about to get a lot busier. Childbirth-focused yoga studio Blooma plans to move their Edina studio to the large mocha-colored building, opening Oct. 15.

"Not a lot of folks realize that pregnancy, birth, and motherhood can be incredibly isolating," said Blooma owner and professional doula Sarah Longacre. "You can be whoever you want here. You're not judged by the number of kids you have or the way you give birth, or any of that."

Blooma's current home on the Edina side of 44th and France is around half the size of the ballroom space it will be taking over. Longacre said the expansion will let Blooma offer two large studios, two massage rooms, a wellness center, and twice the number of bathrooms.

"There's always a bathroom line at Blooma," Longacre said, chuckling.

The area's location just off a major highway exit will be a tremendous boon to business, she added. Some of Blooma's hundreds of clients come from as far away as Northfield and the northern metro area, and it has a strong following around its Grand Avenue studio in St. Paul.

"We've been in this location (at 44th and France) for about five years and I'm amazed that some people can find us," she said.

Prenatal yoga helps mothers-to-be practice the kinds of deep breathing and other exercises that are helpful during childbirth, Longacre said, but they also function as powerful childbirth education sessions for mothers and their partners.

"We talk about the things people don't talk about, from pregnancy sex through post-partum blues," she said. "When a woman can step onto her yoga mat, she can settle in and give herself the unconditional love and undivided attention that is so hard to come by these days."

An as-yet-unnamed business will be filling the remainder of the renovated ballroom space, which used to house a Hollywood Video store. Blooma's grand opening on Oct. 20 will coincide with a celebration to mark the reconstruction of southern Lyndale Avenue and the Lyndale Avenue Bridge.