Press Clippings
Meeting the green preservation challenge
National Housing Trust newsletter - May 29, 2008

Ripley Gardens grows on you
Star Tribune - May 24, 2008
A $16 million affordable living complex in north Minneapolis earns awards and mades dreams come true.

Turning a corner
Affordable Housing Finance - May 2008
After two freeways cut off the Phillips neighborhood from Minneapolis’ central business district in the 1960s, Aeon is partnering with Hope Community to redevelop the corner of Franklin and Portland Avenues.

Aeon recognized for efforts to help homeless
Minneapolis-based Aeon won national recognition and a $10,000 grant in January 2008 from the Fannie Mae Foundation and the Partnership to End Long Term Homelessness in support of its efforts to end homelessness among young people.

Caroline Horton: Growth Opportunities within a Growing Organization
Bridgestar - January 2008
When Caroline Horton returned to Minneapolis in 1998 from a two-year stint as an
AmeriCorps volunteer working in a battered women’s shelter, she planned to use her degree in business administration and accounting to land an auditing job with a major public accounting firm.

St. Paul Downtown / Offices being converted to affordable housing
Pioneer Press - September 21, 2007
While condo construction in downtown St. Paul has come to a near standstill, several plans for low-income apartments appear to be producing a new kind of housing rush.

What’s in a name? For CCHT, it’s Aeon
Alan Arthur admits that he’s never been crazy about the name of his nonprofit group — Central Community Housing Trust of Minneapolis.

“It’s a mouthful,” he said.

That will change next week when CCHT becomes Aeon.

Welcome to the Suburbs
Twin Cities Business, July 2007

“If you could afford to live here, you’d already be home!”

Even some middle-income employees can’t afford homes near their suburban jobs, and their employers are feeling the consequences.  One solution:  In Chaska, companies are supporting affordable housing developments for the middle class.

Grand Old Lady
Minneapolis Observer Quarterly, Spring 2007

On March 1, 1956, at a site that will soon open as a new housing development, the staff of Ripley Hospital for Women, 300 Queen Avenue North in Minneapolis’s Harrison neighborhood, gathered their half dozen or so patients in the large, sunny, enclosed front porch of their picturesque brick building — white women and black women, most or all of whom were there free of charge — threw a modest party with coffee and cookies, sent them home and locked the doors.

Homeless Suffering More Ills
Pioneer Press, 3/14/07

Minnesota's homeless population isn't growing, but its problems are, a study concludes. The proportion of homeless people dealing with mental illness and chronic health problems is on the rise.

 

An elegant new residence
Star Tribune, 2/24/07

Beautifully designed, inside and out, the Jourdain is helping transform an inner-city neighborhood.

Turning a Hurdle into an Asset
Affordable Housing Finance, November 2006

ST. PAUL, MINN. For an abandoned warehouse in this city's old industrial area, a few extra steps made all the differnce.

Extreme Makeover
Downtown Journal, 11/13/06

In a single autumn day, more than 100 volunteers transformed drab community rooms and kitchens at the Downtown Lamoreaux into cozy, stylish spaces.

Chaska's Clover Ridge bringing "new urbanism" to a far outpost of suburbia
Minnesota Real Estate Journal - October 2006

Low-income apartment plans test resolve of officials, residents to follow through on 'workforce housing' ideals.

Challenging assumptions about affordable housing
Downtown Journal - October 2006

Local experts dispute stereotype that low-income housing draws crime to neighborhoods.

Affordable Housing gets $37M
St. Paul Pioneer Press - 10/27/06

The Minnesota Housing Finance Agency is awarding more than $37 million this fall to help with construction and development of affordable housing projects throughout the state.

Seeing a Chaska neighborhood to completion
Star Tribune, 10/21/06

A Chaska neighborhood is getting a new town center and more housing options.

Clover Marketplace breaks ground in Chaska
Chaska Herald, 10/17/06

On a blustery fall day, with snowflakes swirling all around, Central Community Housing Trust broke ground on its latest project, Clover [Field] Marketplace in Chaska's Clover Ridge neighborhood.

Hot Property - Clover Field Marketplace
September 18, 2006

John Kerr, Star Tribune

Central Community Housing Trust plans to break ground this fall on the Clover [Field] Marketplace, a 115-unit apartment building with about half the units aimed at low-income tenants, as well as 10,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial development.

Crane Ordway building opening in Lowertown
Finance & Commerce, 08/24/06

The historic Crane Ordway warehouse at 281 E. Fifth Street in St. Paul's Lowertown neighborhood will re-open today as a 70-unit affordable apartment building.

Historic building, now affordable rentals
Star Tribune, 08/27/06

By Curt Brown

A long-vacant plumbing supply warehouse dodged the wrecking ball in 1998 to become St. Paul's newest affordable housing, with 70 units.

Lofty housing dreams realized
Pioneer Press, 08/24/06 

Rehabilitated warehouse targeting renters of modest means

BY LAURA YUEN

Yuppies and bourgeois bohemians need not apply to downtown St. Paul's newest loft development. In fact, the developers of the Crane Ordway apartments are trying to capture a less-sought urban market: the poor.

Building Power
Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine, 08/06

By Deborah Hopp

Central Community Housing Trust is redeveloping the former Ripley Maternity Hospital into fifty-two affordable rental units.

Nonprofit continues suburban push with Roseville deal
June 29, 2006, Finance & Commerce Magazine

By Burl Gilyard

Minneapolis-based Central Community Housing Trust is continuing to expand its affordable housing programs to the suburbs, closing at the end of May on the 120-unit Har Mar Apartments in Roseville.

Going commercial
Finance & Commerce Magazine, 07/13/06

By Burl Gilyard

Over the last few years, it was common to see aging commercial buildings getting converted into residential condos. But today the condo market has cooled, and this calls for something a little different.

1,200 Affordable Units Put Into Production In 2005
07/06

The New Housing Counts Report on 2005 affordable housing production and preservation produced jointly by HousingLink and Family Housing Fund, shows that at least 1,200 affordable units, both rental and homeownership, were put into the production pipeline in 2005 across the Twin Cities.

St. Barnabas Apartments: One Year After
YouthLink, 06/19/06

A little over a year ago, a special new housing complex was opened in downtown Minneapolis. The St. Barnabas Apartments were the result of a bold vision and a unique partnership, whose members included the Central Community Housing Trust, Allina Hospitals and Clinics, YouthLink, and the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. How have things been going since that time? Carol Gronfor, Development Director for YouthLink, has provided this update.

Moving forward on affordable housing
Southwest Journal, 07/03/06

By Kari VanDerVeen and Cristof TraudesCity officials say they have met three-year housing goals

After three years of working toward a lengthy set of affordable housing goals, the city surpassed the target number of affordable living units it wanted to see in place by the end of last year.

Home Sweet Home
NorthWay Community Trust, Annual Report 2005

Alan Arthur, president of Central Community Housing Trust, credits the Harrison Neighborhood Association for developing the plan to make the Ripley Gardens project a reality.

Ripley Gardens featured on KARE 11
Habitat for Humanity is starting a new project in partnership with Central Community Housing Trust in North Minneapolis. It is on the Historic site of the Ripley Maternity Hospital and the project itself is making a bit of history in the process.

Hard Hat - Crane Ordway
May 2006, Mpls/St. Paul Magazine

By Burl Gilyard

Dating back to 1904, the historic Crane Ordway Building in Lowertown was designed by the same architectural firm that did New York's Grand Station and our own St. Paul Hotel.

A new blueprint for development
May 10, 2006

Laura Yuen, Pioneer Press, St. Paul

Mayor Coleman has a simple message for developers in the heart of St. Paul: Respect the community vision.

Mayor Coleman has a simple message for developers in the heart of St. Paul: Respect the community vision.

The prospect of a gleaming 40-story, glass-and-steel condominium tower in a height-sensitive city built with brick and old-world charm could have brought out the picketers.

Franklin and Portland Gateway - The Power of People and Place
April 2006, The Alley Newsletter

By Deanna Foster and Mary Keefe

Hope Community, a community development organization at the corner of Franklin and Portland, has undergone sweeping changes throughout its almost 30-year history. But the core stays the same-belief in the power of people and place.  

Living without a safety net: Emergency needs can create crisis
Spring 2006, St. Paul Foundation's Enrichments

In many ways, low-income East Metro residents are having a harder time than ever making sure their families’ basic needs are met. Over the last decade, the average worker’s salary has risen 9 percent, while the average worker’s rent went up 34 percent.

Construction Costs Pinch Minnesota Affordable Housing Developers
April 2006, Daily Record, Kansas City, MO

St. Paul-based Common Bond, one of Minnesota's largest developers of affordable housing, caught the full brunt of one of Hurricane Katrina's northernmost gales as it was finalizing plans for its most recent project.

The Jourdain Named 2005's Best Community Impact Project by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
April 21, 2006  Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal

In the 1950s, a middle-aged Native American woman named Winnie Jourdain bought a Minneapolis home at the intersection of Franklin and Portland avenues, in what is now known at the Phillips neighborhood.  

Surcharge would help affordable housing
Star Tribune, Editorial, April 19, 2006

Gateway project helps transform blighted site
March 16, 2006, Finance & Commerce

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.

Historic Building Turned Into Affordable Housing

Converted historic site to house Ripley Gardens homes

Mobile-home parks are vanishing
March 5, 2006

Star Tribune

Mobile-home parks in Minnesota are rapidly disappearing as land prices soar, leaving residents hard-pressed to find affordable housing elsewhere.

If You Lived Here, You'd Be Broke By Now
City Pages, 02/22/2006

How a cadre of developers has turned $800-a-month local apartments into $200,000 condos—and turned out a few thousand residents in the process.

The Invisible Ones
City Pages, 10/26/05

When 19-year-old Angelique Shores was a junior at Richfield High School, she and her classmates were required to talk about their greatest fear during a business course called "Living on Your Own."

Elliot Park affordable housing to expand
Downtown Journal, 10/24/05

An Elliot Park developer wants to expand its supportive/affordable housing project as a bridge to self-sufficiency for formerly homeless and chemically dependent residents.

Building gets new lease on life
Pioneer Press, 10/14/05

Martin Lubell's struggling Renaissance Box community building near Lowertown found a savior in another free-thinking entrepreneur -- his father-in-law.

Central Community Housing Trust: Affordable housing for 'burbs
Star Tribune, 10/3/05

As the nonprofit Central Community Housing Trust looks to a future of developing affordable housing beyond its core in Minneapolis, the organization's track record continues to bring it national recognition.

Developer seeks city aid as foreclosure nears
Pioneer Press, 10/2/05

Reality has set in for St. Paul downtown property owner Martin Lubell, who has diligently held onto his eclectic Renaissance Box community building despite failing to pay off a city loan since 2002.

At last, a real home
Star Tribune, 9/24/05

Laurence Norfleet has survived what he calls a "tough, rough background," particularly since he discovered 13 years ago that he was HIV-positive.

Nonprofit makes bid to rescue Renaissance Box
Finance & Commerce, 9/15/05

Minneapolis-based nonprofit Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT) has a purchase agreement in place for the struggling Renaissance Box building in downtown St. Paul, but it's not clear that the city of St. Paul will endorse the plan.

Low-income homes go 'green'
Pioneer Press, 9/5/05

A former maternity hospital and the site of an old gas station in Minneapolis soon will be transformed into affordable housing. But just because the residents will be low-income doesn't mean the housing will be low-cost.

Ripley's Rebirth
Midwest Home, 9/05

Another birth at Martha G. Ripley Maternity Hospital in north Minneapolis is underway.

Hospital transforms into transitional housing for teens
Affordable Housing Finance, 8/05

Minneapolis - Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT) turned a long-abandoned downtown hospital here into 52 units of affordable housing, most of them for teens who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.

A hospital's new life
Star Tribune, 7/30/05

When Martha Ripley, one of the nation's first female doctors, founded the Maternity Hospital in Minneapolis in 1886, it sparked a revolution in the care of mothers and babies.

Pioneering doctor was a social reformer
Star Tribune, 7/30/05

Though her accomplishments have largely faded into obscurity, Dr. Martha Ripley played a crucial role in helping to turn a rough-and-tumble Minnesota milling center into a civilized city.

Historic north Minneapolis maternity hospital gets new life
Finance & Commerce, 6/23/05

The red brick buildings that once housed the Martha Ripley Maternity Hospital in north Minneapolis are steeped in local history, but at least five years of inactivity and neglect have left the 1915-era structures in a state of disrepair.

Leave the renters' tax credit alone
Star Tribune, 6/8/05

One in nine Minnesota households will be directly impacted by a key budget decision before the governor and Legislature during the special session.

Housing Projects Build on North Side's Residential Strength
The Twin Cities Business Journal, 6/3/05

When Thor Construction's founder Richard Copeland was born in 1955, his family lived in the Sumner-Olson housing projects on the edge of north Minneapolis -- a community recently bulldozed and replaced by Heritage Park.

No room at the shelter - so how about an apartment?
Skyway News, 5/16/05

Just one month ago, Will King moved into the only home he's ever called his own. The 20-year-old started sleeping on the streets at age 12.

Rebuilding Begins at Home
Preservation, May/June 2005

For decades, the best place for a Coke in North Little Rock, Ark., was the Argenta Drug Store, open since 1887.

St. Barnabas reborn with a new mission
Finance & Commerce, 4/14/05

It's not every day that a guy gets to attend a grand opening for a project redeveloped so close to the scene of his own birth.

Developer selected for downtown Rosemount project
Finance & Commerce, 4/14/05

Rosemount city officials last week selected Brooklyn Park-based Contractor Property Developers Co. (CPD) to carry out an ambitious plan to revitalize a 13-block area in the city's downtown.

City Chooses Developer
Pioneer Press, 4/7/05

The Rosemount Port Authority stayed with something familiar on Tuesday night when it chose Contractor Property Developer Company, or CPDC, over two other finalists to head the city's massive 52-acre downtown redevelopment.

The Sinclair Brings Affordable Rentals to Minnesota Suburb
Multi-Housing News, March, 2005

Chaska, Minn.—Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT), a Minneapolis-based non-profit developer, will build its first suburban project in a new, traditionally designed neighborhood here called Clover Field. CCHT closed on the land acquisition in late December.

Four firms vie to develop library site
Finance & Commerce, 2/17/05

Four development teams have submitted proposals to the city to redevelop the site of the Walker Community Library, 2880 Hennepin Ave. S., in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Nonprofit housing developer expands to Chaska
Finance & Commerce, 2/10/05

The Central Community Housing Trust, a nonprofit developer known mostly for its projects in Minneapolis, is expanding to the suburbs with a planned 87-unit affordable housing project in Chaska.