The Cook County/Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA) listened to a presentation by Jeff Corey of One Roof Community Housing and Rick Klun of Center City Housing Corp at the Tuesday, July 8 board meeting. Both organizations are nonprofits that develop and operate a variety of housing options in the greater Duluth area. The duo said their organizations understand that Cook County has a need for housing and they believe they have the skills, experience and relationships with funders necessary to develop and maintain affordable housing across a range of incomes and types. They commended the EDA for its plan to complete a comprehensive housing study.
The men distributed a packet of information on housing projects their organizations had completed or are currently working on, such as a youth and family housing project in Rochester; a 16-unit rental project for homeless veterans combined with space for the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans; the 50 unit Hillside/Steve O’Neill Apartments; development of 250 community land trust homes in Duluth, Proctor, Hermantown, Cloquet and Two Harbors; and over 1,100 housing rehabilitation projects.
Klun said One Roof and Center City do not do the “easy stuff.” He said, “Housing is not for the faint of heart and it’s not for the impatient. It takes a long time to incubate these projects.”
Jeff Corey, who worked with the EDA in 2007-2008 on the Sawtooth Cottages residential development adjacent to the Cedar Grove Business Park, which was ultimately shelved because of lack of funding, said he and Klun were there to talk to the EDA about possible development of the former Tomteboda Motel site on Highway 61 in Grand Marais.
Corey said, “It doesn’t appear that those buildings could be redeveloped, but it’s a lovely piece of property.”
Klun said the building on the east side of the property, which recently—and briefly—was a coffee shop as part of the Grand Marais Gateway Lodge—could be salvageable, but the rest of the buildings were in disrepair.
Klun said he believed the Tomteboda site would lend itself to a mix of affordable and market range housing, to serve the people working two or three jobs to live here, as well as young professionals with higher incomes that just can’t find a home.
EDA Board Member and County Commissioner Heidi Doo-Kirk noted that the Tomteboda site is in the Grand Marais commercial zone, questioning whether it was wise to give up that commercial zoning. Klun said the front of the property is commercial; the back is zoned residential. “That is something we could look at. Perhaps there is a way of partnering to develop it like that,” he said.
Board Member Abby Tofte, who had invited Corey and Klun to the meeting, noted that preliminary discussion with the president of the North Shore Credit Union, which currently owns the Tomteboda property, was encouraging. “He agreed that it would be good to have the entrance to our community improved; to have some beautiful homes there.”
Board Member Howard Hedstrom pointed out that the EDA had recently asked the Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency (AEOA) to find funding for housing projects in Cook County. “Does this jibe with what we are doing with them?”
Klun said that is why the housing study being conducted by the EDA is so important. “We want to define that need. We don’t want to compete for the funding.”
EDA Board President Mark Sandbo agreed, “It would be great to have 20 homes there…20 homes by the business park…20 homes on the West End. But there is a finite amount of funding for all this.”
EDA Treasurer Scott Harrison asked Corey and Klun what they were looking for from the EDA. “So your request is for us to strongly consider the Tomteboda site in our analysis?”
Cory said yes, “And if this site is selected, we would encourage you to move ahead quickly.”
Doo-Kirk asked, “So you’d be prepared to request funding in the next cycle?”
The men said yes. Corey added, “I like that you guys have initiated this study. Last time [with Sawtooth Cottages in 2007 – 2008] I don’t think we had as broad a push from the community to get the project done.”
Klun added that he was hopeful that a redevelopment project at Tomteboda would be eligible for Minnesota Housing Financing Agency (MHFA) funding. “They have a strong focus on workforce housing right now.”
Funding for studying the issue
Treasurer Harrison told the board that he had heard from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation that it would provide $50,000 to be used to complete a comprehensive affordable workforce housing study.
Harrison said the EDA would learn whether or not it would be receiving another grant of $13,000 from the Northland Foundation in support of the housing study soon.
With the money, the EDA will assemble a team of affordable housing experts to study the situation and to try to find the best way to address the problem.
One component of the study is to look at potential sites for housing development, like the Tomteboda property. In the grant application, the EDA said it has recruited Realtors/Property Managers Mike Larson and Tim Kennedy to assist with this process.
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