Eight Projects Win $300,000 in Housing Grants

MINNEAPOLIS-The Minneapolis Foundation and Family Housing Fund recently made grants totaling $300,000 for redevelopment projects that include one-time housing grant opportunities.

On behalf of the two private foundations, the Metropolitan Council, awarded funds to seven projects in New Brighton, Columbia Heights, Eagan, Minneapolis, New Hope and Ramsey to facilitate redevelopment efforts on 1,075 acres and build nearly 4,300 new housing units.

The grants are for predevelopment purposes, including site preparation, analysis and design, in order to prepare the projects for actual construction.

The grants include:

• $50,000 to the City of New Brighton for the Northwest Quadrant Redevelopment Project, a mixed-use development on 90-plus acres near a regional park with good highway access. About half the site will be used for 730 units of housing.

• $50,000 to Columbia Heights for the Industrial Area Redevelopment, turning 29 acres of blighted industrial land just north of Minneapolis into a residential development with trails, park connections and other amenities.

• $50,000 to Eagan for the Cedar Grove Redevelopment, redeveloping an underutilized retail area, at the intersection of Cedar Avenue and County Road 13, for mixed uses, including up to 350 units of housing and some commercial and office development.

• $50,000 to Minneapolis for the Lowell School Site project, which is a residential development on a vacant two-acre site in the Jordan neighborhood that is currently owned by the city’s school district.

• $41,000 to Minneapolis for the Nicollet Hotel Block Project, a planned mixed-use development next to the new Minneapolis Central Library with good access to transit, up to 300 units of housing, some retail and an underground transit station.

• $33,000 to Ramsey to develop implementation tools for the Central Rural Reserve Area Study, which looks at redevelopment of a 970-acre area just north of the city’s new Town Center. The area had been subdivided into rural residential lots of one and 2.5 acres. Plans are underway to achieve higher residential urban densities that would be more consistent with the objectives of the Town Center.

• $26,000 to New Hope for Northeast Winnetka Townhomes, redeveloping the Frank’s Nursery site, at the intersection of Bass Lake Road and Winnetka Avenue, into townhomes ranging in price from $160,000 to $200,000. The Metropolitan Council is the regional planning organization for the seven-county metro area.