A pair of nonprofit partners this winter kicked off the second stage of their ambitious effort to rebuild a historic but stubbornly blighted intersection in south Minneapolis.
The Jourdain, a 41-unit affordable apartment building, is being built at Franklin and Portland avenues by Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT) and Hope Community.
The Jourdain, which will stand on the southwest corner of what is being called the Gateway District, is just one part of a wholesale reconstruction of the intersection about a mile south of downtown Minneapolis.
The Gateway project will eventually add 269 residences and 30,000 square feet of commercial uses to a neighborhood that’s dotted with handsome early 20th century apartment buildings and churches, but that has suffered for decades from physical deterioration and high crime rates.
Hope Community, CCHT and a long list of financial partners set out to reverse those trends by renovating a handful of existing buildings into safe, quality housing and by filling vacant or under-used parcels with new residential and commercial buildings.
Altogether, the partners plan to direct more than $50 million into the neighborhood, linking the corner to successful commercial and residential redevelopments that have already revitalized large portions of east Franklin and south Portland avenues.
But the Franklin-Portland intersection itself posed a knotty redevelopment problem, one that required a comprehensive remedy, according to Gina Ciganik, vice president for housing development at CCHT.
“This was a tough corner,” Ciganik said. “All four parcels surrounding it were vacant or had blighted buildings, and there was a lot of bad stuff going on. It would have helped to put up a single new building, but it really needed a new neighborhood” to counter the property declines and the tradition of crime at the corner.
The Gateway’s first stage was completed in 2004, with the renovation of 30 apartments south of the intersection and the construction of the Children’s Village Center, which brought 30 new affordable family apartments, offices and meeting space to the southeast corner of the intersection.
Those affordable units leased up immediately, and as Hope Community moved its offices and programs into the commercial spaces, the corner immediately started to calm down, Ciganik said.
This winter’s second stage focuses attention on the Gateway’s southwest quadrant, which was used most recently as an occasional used-auto dealership.
The Jourdain’s 41 new apartments range from studios to three-bedroom units.
More than half will be affordable to households earning 50 percent of the area’s median income, with the rest renting at local market rates. Parking will be provided in an underground garage, which enables the developers to retain green space on the parcel for a playground and landscaping.
The development also includes 4,000 square feet of commercial space on the main floor of the four-story building. Ciganik said the partners hope that space soon will be leased for use as a corner grocery store.
Target date for The Jourdain’s opening is November.
The developers obtained a variety of grants from the city of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, the Family Housing Fund and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency to support the $9.4 million redevelopment and ensure that it meets affordability goals.
They also obtained $380,000 in private equity through the sale of low-income housing tax credits. The Neighborhood Equity Fund marketed those credits to investors.
MMA Financial (which includes the former Glaser Financial of St. Paul) arranged a $3.2 million construction loan and mortgage through U.S. Housing and Urban Development.
Hope Community and CCHT will act as managing partners for the nonprofit entity that will own the entire Gateway development.
The project is named for Winifred Jourdain, a White Earth reservation native who moved to the Franklin Avenue neighborhood in the 1920s. Her home became a haven for hundreds of American Indians who arrived in Minneapolis over the next several decades.
The next stage in the Gateway’s plan is The Wellstone, a $13.9 million project that includes 59 apartments and 6,000 square feet of commercial space that will be built on the intersection’s northeast corner.
Half of The Wellstone’s apartments will be retained for renters at 50 percent of the area median income.
That development should begin by the end of the year, if the partnership’s request to both city and state agencies for low-income housing tax credits is approved. Those allocation decisions should be made by October, Ciganik said.
The Gateway partnership intends to develop another mixed-use project on the final northeast quadrant in 2007. That will include about 90 units of housing, but the details for that final stage haven’t been completed yet.
