City feedback and results of a market study have the Snelling Yards redevelopment partners planning a bigger project with more affordable housing units.
Lupe Development, The Wall Cos. and Ecumen are boosting the size of the two-building apartment complex at 3601 44th St. E. by 48 units to 251. The developers are planning a $58 million project consisting of a 121-unit affordable apartment building and a 130-unit affordable, 55-plus age-restricted building, according to a city staff report.
The complex would be within a block of the 46th Street Station on the Blue Line light rail. The project site is on the western half of a block bounded by 44th and 45th streets and Snelling and Hiawatha avenues.
The Snelling Yards redevelopment goes before the Minneapolis Planning Commission’s Committee of the Whole for consideration on Thursday.
The buildings would rise on 3.5 city-owned acres used by the city’s public works department for storage, according to the staff report. The project’s design has changed since Minneapolis-based Lupe and Wall Cos. and Shoreview-based Ecumen proposed it in response to a 2016 city request for proposals. With the added units, the buildings have grown from four stories to five, said Aaron Diederich, Lupe’s vice president of construction.
The increased unit density was “needed to make it work,” he said, and came out of a market study the developers undertook.
The developers also reversed the orientation of the 55-plus building on 45th Street East, he said, moving a surface parking lot that bordered the street to a location behind the building. The change was made based on feedback from city officials and the Longfellow neighborhood, Diederich said.
The complex would also have 141 underground parking spaces.
The project has received a letter of support from the Longfellow Community Council, Diederich said. The “intergenerational campus” would make Snelling Yards an option for neighborhood residents looking to extend their time in the neighborhood, he said.
“There’s a large population of people who want to stay in the area,” Diederich said in an interview Monday. “We think we’re catering to the people in the neighborhood.”
Rents at Snelling Yards would be affordable for households receiving 50 to 60 percent of the area median income, which is $94,300 for a family of four. Studio apartments would average 550 square feet in size, while one-bedroom apartments would average 750 square feet, and two bedroom apartments would average 950 square feet, according to a project narrative filed with the city.
Ten percent of the units in each building would be set aside for long-term homeless tenants and tenants with disabilities.
Snelling Yards is the second housing project the three partners have worked on together. They previously partnered on the 284-unit Mill City Quarter/Abiitan Mill City project in the 300 to 400 block of South Second Street in downtown Minneapolis. That two-building development, which opened in 2016, consists of workforce housing and market-rate senior units, according to Finance & Commerce archives.
Financing for the Snelling Yards project would come from a combination of sources, including Metropolitan Council grants, the Minneapolis Affordable Housing Trust Fund Program, and affordable housing tax credits, Diederich said.
Construction at Snelling Yards is expected to start sometime in 2019 and will take about 14 months, Diederich said. Lupe and Wall Cos. will own the affordable housing when it is complete, while Shoreview-based Ecumen will own the 55-plus building.
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