MINNEAPOLIS—The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust has just decided to provide $33 million of pension capital funding for the construction of Five 15 on the Park, a 259-unit apartment complex in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood near downtown Minneapolis. The $52 million project will generate both about 260 union construction jobs and needed affordable housing, AFL-CIO officials say.
Developers have begun to look very favorably on the downtown of this vibrant city. But the increasing activity here has not lessened the need for affordable rental housing, and lenders have responded. As reported in GlobeSt.com, for example, the Minneapolis-based US Bank financed the development of Pillsbury A-Mill, a local historic flour mill into 251 units of affordable rental housing tailored toward local artists.
The six-story Five 15 on the Park will have 132 affordable units and 127 market rate units. Plans for the ground floor commercial space include a neighborhood community center, child day care center, and healthcare facility. These features, combined with the project's location near mass transit options, make the new development consistent with the Minneapolis Plan for Sustainable Growth, a guide for land development decisions approved by the city council in 2009.
“Five 15 on the Park is just the kind of development that Minneapolis and this neighborhood have said they need,” says HIT executive vice president and chief investment officer Stephanie H. Wiggins. “It represents sustainable, quality, affordable housing, well-connected to mass transit so that people have better access to jobs and services and community amenities.”
Five 15 on the Park is the HIT's latest investment with the St. Paul, MN-based mortgage banker Oak Grove Capital, LLC. The HIT has helped finance 35 housing projects in Minnesota working with Oak Grove and its predecessor company. Oak Grove reported $798 million of affordable housing loans in 2013, a 44% increase over the previous year.
Collective bargaining agreements with the Minneapolis building trades unions will govern all work on the project.
Five 15 on the Park sits directly across the street from historic Riverside Plaza, an iconic apartment complex that $50 million in HIT financing recently helped complete a substantial rehabilitation. The 1,303-unit Riverside Plaza development has provided city residents with affordable housing for over 35 years.
The HIT has invested over $322 million in the Minneapolis and St. Paul metro area over the last 10 years, building or preserving almost 3,600 units of housing in 23 projects and generating over 3,200 jobs for members of the local building and construction trades unions.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
