St. Paul’s affordable housing stock is poised to grow as a local development team pushes ahead with plans for a 60-plus unit apartment building with commercial space on a long-vacant site at the northeast corner of East Seventh Street and Minnehaha Avenue.
Project for Pride in Living of Minneapolis is going before the City Council on Wednesday with a request to rezone the property at 892 E. Seventh St. from “general business” to “traditional neighborhood,” a key box to check in the entitlement process.
The proposed rezoning was up for a “first reading” at the April 17 City Council meeting. The council laid the request over for an April 24 public hearing.
Chris Hong, a St. Paul city planner, told the City Council last Wednesday that the traditional neighborhood zoning allows greater building heights for mixed-use developments. The new building would be 55 feet high and the existing zoning limits structures to 30 feet, Hong said.
Soul Community Development, a BIPOC firm based in Minneapolis, is partnering with PPL on the estimated $45 million project.
“They are developing ground floor commercial, which will include child care, medical office, and a food hall,” Chris Dettling, PPL’s Vice President of Real Estate Development, said in an interview.
Funding for the estimated $45 million project is still a work in progress, but Dettling said the development team has “most of the capital stack secured.” The city of St. Paul has committed Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to the project and a request is pending with the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.
“Between those two, the project should be fully funded. And we hope to close in September and then start construction,” Dettling said.
In December, the Metropolitan Council awarded $975,000 in transit-oriented development grants to the project, as Finance & Commerce reported . The project will provide “affordable housing to multigenerational families as well as supportive services and retail,” the Met Council said in a press release .
Dettling said 17 of the units will be affordable for households at 30% of area median income and the rest will be affordable at 50% AMI. The unit count will include some three- and four-bedroom apartments, according to a project narrative.
The developers have a purchase agreement with the Saint Paul Port Authority to acquire the triangle-shaped development site, which sits next to a bus route and is within walking distance of a proposed Purple Line Bus Rapid Transit station.
Vacant since 2011, the site was most recently home to a restaurant and has changed ownership “several times” since 1985, according to a city staff report. The property’s estimated market value for tax purposes is $575,000, according to Ramsey County records.
PPL’s project team includes Frana Companies, Noor Construction and design firm Cuningham.
Founded in 1972, PPL builds and manages “safe, quality, affordable housing throughout the Twin Cities,” according to its website. The company owns, manages or services more than 1,600 housing units.
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