Twin Cities Multifamily Properties Take Home Top Prizes

Four HUD multifamily developments in the Twin Cites metropolitan region won the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal "2006 Best in Real Estate" awards. This prestigious honor recognizes the successful contribution that the Minneapolis Multifamily HUB has worked hard to accomplish alongside its business partners in ensuring these outstanding affordable housing developments find their way through the pipeline. A panel of nine third-party judges selected the winners, and Minneapolis HUD is proud of this distinction and proud of its involvement with these award-winning developments!

These complicated developments include multiple funding sources such as tax increment financing, project based section 8 assistance, as well as funding from cities, counties, and non-profits. No one entity can fund these types of developments alone; it takes a collaboration of highly dedicated funders working together. Howard Goldman, Director of Multifamily Housing in the Minneapolis Field Office, is particularly pleased with these four developments. "These are what I am most proud of because they are the most complicated deals in town."

[Photo 1: The Jourdain] First prize - Community Impact Franklin-Portland Gateway, Phase II -- The Jourdain
The Jourdain was named after Winnie Jourdain, a Native American woman who lived at the corner of Franklin & Portland and dedicated much of her life to providing for the homeless in one of Minneapolis' roughest neighborhoods. This development provides much needed affordable housing as well as increased safety, security, and sense of community. The development is a part of a four corners vision for this intersection. The Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT) has ambitiously purchased all four corners of the Franklin & Portland intersection with a plan to improve not just the site of the Jourdain, but the entire intersection.

CCHT and Hope Community Inc developed the Jourdain with financing from HUD as well as a total of 9 other funders in Minneapolis. It includes 41 housing units, 60% affordable to families earning 50 percent or less of the Twin Cities median annual household income, as well as a grocery store.

[Photo 2: University Dale Apartments and Rondo Community Outreach Library]

First prize - New Mixed-Use Development University Dale Apartments and Rondo Community Outreach Library
Located in a formerly blighted and notoriously bad neighborhood, this development is unique because it is a mixed income development with a broad income mix including units set aside for the homeless, units for people with very low incomes, units for people with moderate income levels, and market-rate units. This marks the first time that Minneapolis HUD has reviewed a proposal for a development with both homeless and market rate units.

The City of St. Paul, Legacy Management & Development Corporation, and the St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation in St. Paul developed the University Dale Apartments. This development includes a total of 98 housing units with a blend of affordable and market-rate units financed by HUD as well as 11 other backers.

 [Photo 3: St. Anthony Mills Apartments]

First prize New Multifamily Residential Development St. Anthony Mills Apartments
Located near the new Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, and surrounded by some of the city's most expensive condos, St. Anthony Mills Apartments provides a total of 93 housing units, 85 units of which are affordable. The Guthrie Theatre Foundation will use the remaining 8 units for its "artists-in-residence" program. This development is an important addition to this part of downtown Minneapolis because skyrocketing housing prices have made affordable housing a scarce resource.

The St. Anthony Mills Apartments was developed by Brighton Development Corporation with 13 different funding sources.

First prize - Redevelopment/Extensive Renovation - Small, Residential Cecil Newman Housing
[Photo 4: Cecil Newman Housing before renovation]
[Photo 5: Cecil Newman Housing after renovation]

Minneapolis HUD has worked with Cecil Newman since its inception in the 1960's. Located on the north side of Minneapolis, Cecil Newman used to be a hot spot of drugs, crime and violence. Minneapolis HUD, along with Legacy Management and 9 other backers completely renovated the 64 project-based Section 8 units. Raising the $11.4 million was not easy, but for the residents of Cecil Newman and the surrounding neighborhood, it was necessary. The Director of Multifamily housing in the Minneapolis Field Office states, "We were committed to making this deal work any way we had to, and we did."

These four award-winning properties offer valuable contributions to the development of their communities, in general, and to the provision of affordable housing specifically, of which the Minneapolis HUD Field Office is proud to be a part.

 
Content Archived: July 27, 2011