Low income housing in North Minneapolis (St. Paul, Robbinsdale: apartment complexes, rental, lofts)
Minneapolis - St. PaulTwin Cities
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What are your thoughts on this new housing project (double entendre)? What effect will it have on nearby property values?
2601-2623 West Broadway, Minneapolis
Type: Rental apartments Units: 46 Size: 3 stories Cost: $8.7 million Developer: Alliance Housing Inc. Details: A long-planned effort to construct 46 units of "workforce" housing on the site of a vacant gas station in North Minneapolis is about to get underway after financing was secured and city approvals given this month.
Initially proposed in 2004, the Gateway Lofts project at first encountered political and community opposition and then a long wait for funding in a highly competitive landscape for scarce tax credit allocations. But a milestone was passed in January when the effort's nonprofit developer, Alliance Housing Inc., was able to secure $686,000 in low-income housing tax credits from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.
That will be added to other funding sources that include low-interest deferred loans from the city and Hennepin County affordable housing moneys to produce a hoped-for fall groundbreaking, said Herb Frey, executive director of Alliance Housing.
"Some of the neighbors didn't like the project when we proposed it, and the political support wasn't really there at first," Frey said. "But since then I think people have realized that this answers the need for more dense housing along transportation corridors like West Broadway. That's really what you need to help revitalize the North Side."
Its location is considered the "gateway" into Minneapolis from Robbinsdale, and Frey says an attractive new apartment development at the spot catering to low- and moderate-income tenants with jobs would be a valuable addition to the city.
He said the finished product would be very much like Alliance's 80-unit Hiawatha Commons in south Minneapolis, which placed affordable housing along the light-rail corridor to serve those with low-wage jobs at the airport, the Mall of America and in downtown Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis Planning Commission this month approved a conditional use permit for Gateway Lofts. Under the plan, a long-vacant gas station at the corner of West Broadway and Upton Avenue N. would be demolished and a billboard on the site removed.
Enclosed, below-grade parking accessed from Upton Avenue would be part of the project.
Frey said a possible tenant pool would be workers at nearby North Memorial Hospital.
DON JACOBSON
Don Jacobson, a freelance writer based in St. Paul, can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.
What are your thoughts on this new housing project (double entendre)? What effect will it have on nearby property values?
I think it's great. It will likely improve nearby property values if anything. There have been a lot of affordable housing developments built in Minneapolis where the average passerby has no idea whether it's affordable or private-market (if not luxury) housing, and it sounds like this will be pretty attractive development. The site it's being built on is nothing but blight in its current state, so it's nice to see something going up there, and I agree w/the article in that there is a need for higher-density housing along transportation corridors (especially on the northside).
That's great, I hope more projects like this get approved and finished..
Does anybody know of similar affordable areas/apartment complexes in Minneapolis proper that have easy access to public transit/bike paths ?
By affordable I mean rent no more than 400-500 a month..
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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There will NEVER be any kind of HUD housing with concentrated poverty ever again in this country.....so I wouldn't worry about that. There may be low-income buildings but nothing 100% subsidized like the Robert Taylor Homes or Cabrini Green. There were some on the Northside of MPLS as well, but all were torn down, and all are pretty much torn down in Chicago too.
Oh, those old northside housing projects were terrible - remember that stretch of Olsen Parkway in the 70's? It was a study in hopelessness. Who came up with that idea?
There will NEVER be any kind of HUD housing with concentrated poverty ever again in this country.....so I wouldn't worry about that. There may be low-income buildings but nothing 100% subsidized like the Robert Taylor Homes or Cabrini Green. There were some on the Northside of MPLS as well, but all were torn down, and all are pretty much torn down in Chicago too.
Agreed. I think it has been collectively concluded that this was a failed housing experiment and nobody will be in a hurry to do something like that again.
By the way, welcome back! I haven't seen you post for a while.
What are your thoughts on this new housing project (double entendre)? What effect will it have on nearby property values?
2601-2623 West Broadway, Minneapolis
Type: Rental apartments Units: 46 Size: 3 stories Cost: $8.7 million Developer: Alliance Housing Inc. Details: A long-planned effort to construct 46 units of "workforce" housing on the site of a vacant gas station in North Minneapolis is about to get underway after financing was secured and city approvals given this month.
Initially proposed in 2004, the Gateway Lofts project at first encountered political and community opposition and then a long wait for funding in a highly competitive landscape for scarce tax credit allocations. But a milestone was passed in January when the effort's nonprofit developer, Alliance Housing Inc., was able to secure $686,000 in low-income housing tax credits from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.
That will be added to other funding sources that include low-interest deferred loans from the city and Hennepin County affordable housing moneys to produce a hoped-for fall groundbreaking, said Herb Frey, executive director of Alliance Housing.
"Some of the neighbors didn't like the project when we proposed it, and the political support wasn't really there at first," Frey said. "But since then I think people have realized that this answers the need for more dense housing along transportation corridors like West Broadway. That's really what you need to help revitalize the North Side."
Its location is considered the "gateway" into Minneapolis from Robbinsdale, and Frey says an attractive new apartment development at the spot catering to low- and moderate-income tenants with jobs would be a valuable addition to the city.
He said the finished product would be very much like Alliance's 80-unit Hiawatha Commons in south Minneapolis, which placed affordable housing along the light-rail corridor to serve those with low-wage jobs at the airport, the Mall of America and in downtown Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis Planning Commission this month approved a conditional use permit for Gateway Lofts. Under the plan, a long-vacant gas station at the corner of West Broadway and Upton Avenue N. would be demolished and a billboard on the site removed.
Enclosed, below-grade parking accessed from Upton Avenue would be part of the project.
Frey said a possible tenant pool would be workers at nearby North Memorial Hospital.
DON JACOBSON
Don Jacobson, a freelance writer based in St. Paul, can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.
$8.7 million for 46 units=$190k/unit. That's more than my house is worth.
OK, but is your house new? Is it built to withstand decades of rental tenants? My guess is a well-built multi-unit dwelling needs to be built somewhat more sturdily than a single family house.
OTOH, it may be the developers have incredibly high overhead - and there are a lot of palms to grease on a project like this. I'm sure there's not any corruption involved, I mean stuff like that never happens in this town anymore, of course, but ...
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Low income housing in North Minneapolis
)? What effect will it have on nearby property values?
