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CHASKA, MN - January 19, 2005 - Twin Cities-based nonprofit developer Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT) will develop its first suburban project in a new, traditionally designed neighborhood in western Chaska called Clover Field. CCHT closed on the land acquisition in late December.

The Sinclair will consist of two buildings with 87 rental units, approximately half of which will be affordable to families of four earning $38,000 annually. The units include efficiencies, one- to three-bedroom apartments, and two-story, town-home-style units.

CCHT Director of Special Projects Gina Ciganik says the building design will complement the surrounding neighborhood architecture, while underground parking will allow room for a landscaped courtyard and a structured play space for younger children.

Chaska has garnered praise for Clover Field's intentional design, featuring a neighborhood center, diverse housing options, and walkable streets. The Sinclair will be Clover Field's primary source of multi-family rental housing.

"This is a very important corner for us in the neighborhood," says Kevin Ringwald, director of planning and development for Chaska. "It's right across from the school and the community center. It really anchors the neighborhood. We'd been struggling to find a developer who had the skill set and the experience to do this missing piece."

Ringwald says they contacted CCHT as soon as they heard of the organization's 2003 plans to expand its service area from central Minneapolis to the entire Metropolitan Area.

"Our goal was to be CCHT's first project in the suburbs," Ringwald says.

Ringwald says he hopes the Sinclair will become a model of affordable housing development in an outer-ring suburb. He says the Sinclair will "turn some of the false impressions of what affordable housing has to be on its ear."

The Sinclair is CCHT's second project outside Minneapolis but first in a suburban location. Its first outside Minneapolis is the renovation of a historic Lowertown warehouse in St. Paul to create efficiency apartments, which is in the financing stage.

"The possibilities for providing affordable housing in suburban communities are limitless," says Ciganik. "Like urban areas, many suburbs are seeing incomes remaining relatively flat and housing prices rising. People need affordable places to live near their workplaces, and a lot of jobs are in the suburbs."

The total development cost of the Sinclair is $13 to $15 million. Construction will begin in 2006 and be completed in 2007.

Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT) is an award-winning nonprofit developer of quality housing for the Twin Cities Metro Area, providing homes for more than 2,000 people annually. Since 1986, CCHT has built and renovated 23 properties, totaling 1,200 units of housing. Its mission is to create and sustain quality affordable housing that strengthens lives and communities.

Interviews available:

-Gina Ciganik, Director of Special Projects, Central Community Housing Trust

-Kevin Ringwald, Director of Planning and Development, City of Chaska

Visuals available:

Color rendering of the Sinclair

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