The slow construction of a handful of triplexes at the corner of 61st Ave and Brooklyn Boulevard has caused the Brooklyn Center City Council to prohibit a second phase from breaking ground about a mile away. Despite the developer’s discomfort, previous approvals for 13 triplexes was whittled down to an approval for seven triplexes.
“I want to see one project finished before we start another one,” Councilmember Kris Lawrence-Anderson told the developer, Terry Robertson with C Alan Homes LLC, at the June 24 city council meeting.
The six rejected triplexes were planned at 6921-6939 Brooklyn Boulevard, at a vacant property adjacent and to the north of Slim’s restaurant.
Robertson believed the amended approval would render the original project unfeasible.
“It’s a thin margin already,” Robertson said. “It probably would not work. ... The numbers won’t work, and I don’t know if I can get a loan just for the first phase.”
He explained that the amount of infrastructure needed for the buildings, especially if done separately, would create an uptick in cost.
“It knocks your numbers out of whack,” Robertson said.
The embattled project was first approved in 2020. In that time, two buildings were constructed but they remain unoccupied at the 61st Ave and Brooklyn Boulevard intersection.
Per agenda documents, Hennepin County required a portion of the property be quit-claimed and used for right-of-way in spring 2022. At one point, the project’s lender halted funding and an ongoing legal battle ensued.
C Alan Homes LLC has since entered into a voluntary foreclosure and has a new partner to refinance and finish the project.
The project returned to the council for re-approval because the applicant failed to record the information with the county within the year.
Robertson said amid the financial struggles, he began using his personal funds to keep the project afloat, which halted his ability to pursue his other custom home projects across the state.
“My wife and I have invested everything we have into this project. It’s a big deal for us. It’s $14 million,” he said.
He added that the lender was also coming around.
“We agreed to go into voluntary foreclosure with the lender. We agreed that they would stave it off for quite a while,” Robertson said. “They are trying to work with me because they know they put me in a bad position. We did nothing wrong. At all. Nothing.”
Robertson expressed confidence that with his new partner, the project would move forward.
The Council voted 4-0 to let the seven buildings at the southern site be constructed but did not garner a majority vote to renew approvals for the untouched northern site. Voting against the northern site triplexes was councilmembers Dan Jerzak and Lawrence-Anderson.
Jerzak said he had fielded multiple complaints on the lack of upkeep at the southern property, and sided with the Brooklyn Center Planning Commission and neighbors on their no-confidence vote on the northern site being completed.
“It’s admirable you want to do this for this city ... but businesses are also for profit, and you have to take into consideration the other inconveniences of the neighbors that are in that single dead end there,” Jerzak said of the northern site near Slim’s restaurant.
Lawrence-Anderson said she did not have a lot of confidence in the northern site and wanted to see the southern site completed before she would consider it.
Councilmember Teneshia Kragness applauded Robertson’s determination to see the project through and submitted a “yes” vote for the northern site, as did Mayor April Graves.
Neighbors expressed concern with parking, density and a loss of faith in the owner of the property getting the project completed in a reasonable period of time.
Councilmember Marquita Butler was absent from the meeting.
Robertson hopes to have the remaining approved triplexes constructed 18-20 months after financing is secured.
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