Workers will start building foundations by the end of this month for eight of the 41 rental buildings to be built in the first phase of the project. The construction will go up on a site on the north side of Olson Memorial Highway just east of Emerson Avenue North. The 232 rental housing units as part of the first phase will include 105 public housing apartments for families, 48 apartments for other lower-income families and 79 for people paying market-rate rents.

The rental housing will be a mix of duplexes, garden apartments and townhouses with one to five bedrooms. The first rental units will be ready for occupancy by fall 2002, with all units to be completed in 2003. All units will be privately owned and managed.

The agreement was signed by Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton to allow the city, the Minneapolis Community Development Agency and the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority to enter into the Phase One development.