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Upper Harbor affordable housing plans on north Minneapolis riverfront hit funding snag

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Upper Harbor affordable housing plans on north Minneapolis riverfront hit funding snag


An affordable housing project planned for the ambitious Upper Harbor development along the north Minneapolis riverfront has been delayed — and may need to be reimagined — after the project’s applications for critical state subsidies were rejected two years in a row.

The setback comes as other parts of the 48-acre redevelopment are moving forward. Streets have been constructed and utilities installed. Developer United Properties reports the centerpiece First Avenue amphitheater is on track for completion by next year’s concert season, plans are forming around a health and wellness hub proposed to be run by InnerCity Tennis, and the Park Board has broken ground on a 20-acre park that will reconnect north Minneapolis with the Mississippi River.

The first phase of construction, which started this spring, was also supposed to include a mixed-use affordable housing building with 170 rentals — two-thirds of them at 30-50% area median income — and 17 perpetually affordable townhomes. But the financing uncertainty has delayed construction to next spring at the earliest, with the possibility that its deep affordability levels may have to be re-evaluated.

Bill English, a past president of the Minneapolis Urban League who has been beating the drum for living wage jobs and affordable housing at Upper Harbor since he served on the project’s collaborative planning committee five years ago, has been urging Northsiders to pay attention to what’s going on. He said he’s worried about gentrification if affordable housing isn’t part of the project.

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“This year the state gave more money to affordable housing than has ever been done in the history of the state,” he said. “Yet where’s that money going?”

Northside developer Devean George, whom United Properties tapped to lead the construction of over 500 units of affordable housing at Upper Harbor, said the project team may have to “tweak” the affordability levels, but promised that the building will not become luxury apartments.

“It’s still going to be an affordable project. It just may be a few extra things that add benefits may have to be taken out, that we just couldn’t afford,” George said. “Right now we have a deep mixed-income that’s really inclusive of everybody… We’re going to try to keep the project as consistent as we’ve been talking about, but we may shrink down the number [of units] or cut it in half.”

Public subsidies that the building has already received include $5 million in affordable housing trust funds from the city of Minneapolis, $2 million in Livable Communities Demonstration Account funds from the Metropolitan Council, and $1 million in affordable housing incentive funds from Hennepin County.

George’s company Building Blocks applied for $12 million more in deferred loans from Minnesota Housing, the state housing finance agency, in 2022 and 2023. The applications were both rejected despite leaping from a score of 76 to 130 from one year to the next. Last year, successful metro-area projects competing for funding in the “workforce housing” category scored between 133 and 145 points.

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“We kind of retooled the project to be more competitive and really had hope that this summer we would be closing all of our financing and starting construction,” said Tom Strohm of United Properties. “It probably impacts the subsequent, second phase of affordable housing right? So that’s one of the questions that we’ve had to ask ourselves. We can’t start applying for the second phase of affordable housing before we get the first phase secured.”

The second phase of affordable housing construction, originally scheduled to begin next year, includes two more mixed-use housing developments.

Minnesota Housing scores multifamily projects higher when they include deeply affordable units, when they’re employing innovations, cost-efficiency and community involvement, and when they’re led by developers of color and women. The agency selected 28 projects out of 97 multifamily applications received last year, including in Minneapolis a new senior complex at 3246 Nicollet Ave., new permanent supportive housing by Aeon and preservation funds for buildings owned by Little Earth of United Tribes, RS Eden and Simpson Housing.

The Upper Harbor project scored higher than a few others that were chosen. Minnesota Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho said hard decisions have to be made depending on how much money is left in the pot after the highest-scoring, most competitive projects are selected first. Upper Harbor’s $12 million ask was steeper than most, which presents a challenge for getting picked up, she said.

“Sometimes projects have been partially funded by others and they’ve got more leverage, they’re more ready to go,” Ho said. “It also depends on the size of the project — preservation per door tends to be less than a new construction deal… The Upper Harbor Terminal project is great, and it’s also a big project.”

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George said he understands Northsiders are going to be disheartened about the prolonged wait for affordable housing at Upper Harbor, but that the development team is working on a yet more competitive application for state funds this year.

“This has taken some time,” he said. “The main thing would be to keep hope and understand that we’re still working to make this right.”



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Minneapolis, MN

Minnesota weather: Gorgeous Sunday with a warmer Monday ahead

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Minnesota weather: Gorgeous Sunday with a warmer Monday ahead


A sunny and warm Sunday is in store for the Twin Cities, with even higher temperatures expected on Monday before a chance of rain and cooler air returns later in the week.

Sunday forecast

Local perspective:

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Sunday is starting with some cloud cover before sunshine moves in with highs near 70 degrees around the metro and southern parts of the state. 

Winds will be much lighter than Saturday, coming from the south at 5 to 10 mph with only occasional gusts up to 15 mph. 

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The Brainerd Lakes area will see temperatures in the 60s, while the North Shore will be cooler, which is typical for this time of year. 

Sunday’s weather is expected to be dry and pleasant.

Overnight, temperatures will drop to the upper 30s and lower 40s, with some clouds moving in ahead of Monday. 

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Extended forecast 

What’s next:

Monday could be the warmest day of the week, with highs in the lower 70s for the Twin Cities and some spots in southern Minnesota possibly reaching close to 80 degrees.

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Winds will shift from southerly to southeasterly and then easterly as the day goes on, but should remain light. 

After the warm start to the week, a cold front will move through on Tuesday, bringing a chance for a few rain showers in the early morning. 

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Temperatures will likely drop to the upper 40s by Wednesday and Thursday, with another front possibly bringing showers late Friday into early Saturday.

The rest of the extended forecast calls for temperatures close to or just below average, with highs in the upper 40s to lower 50s.

The Source: This story uses information from the FOX 9 weather forecast.

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Minneapolis, MN

Man found dead in south Minneapolis house fire

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Man found dead in south Minneapolis house fire


Firefighters are investigating the Minneapolis’s second fire fatality of the year after a man died in a house fire Saturday afternoon. 

Fatal fire on 28th Avenue South

What we know:

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According to the Minneapolis Fire Department (MFD), fire crews arrived shortly after 1:00 p.m. and found smoke coming from the second floor of a single-family home on 28th Avenue South. Bystanders alerted firefighters that someone might be trapped inside.

Crews had to work through heavy debris to reach the upstairs area. It took about 40 minutes to fully put out the fire.

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During the primary search, firefighters found a man in his 60s dead on the second floor. No one else was found after searching all the floors.

Minneapolis Animal Care and Control took in a dog found outside the home.

Assistant Chief Wes Van Vickle said, “The department is grateful to the neighbors who alerted fire crews that someone may still have been inside, allowing them to act quickly.”

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Fire safety reminders and community response

What they’re saying:

“This afternoon’s tragic loss of life weighs heavily on all of us, and we extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased,” said Van Vickle.

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He also encourages the public to regularly check and maintain smoke detectors and fire extinguishers at home.

There were no other injuries reported. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner is working to confirm the man’s identity.

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What we don’t know:

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, and the man’s name has not been released.

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Minnesota serves as the flagship for nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump

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Minnesota serves as the flagship for nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests against Trump


ST. PAUL, Minn. — Organizers of Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies across the country are predicting that the protests against the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration could add up to one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history, with Minnesota taking center stage.

Organizers say more than 3,100 events have been registered in all 50 states, with more than 9 million people expected to participate.

And they’ve designated the rally at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul as the national flagship event, in recognition of how the state where federal agents fatally shot two people who were monitoring Trump’s immigration crackdown became an epicenter of resistance.

Headlining that observance will be Bruce Springsteen, performing “Streets of Minneapolis,” which he wrote in response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and in tribute to the thousands of Minnesotans who took to the streets over the winter. Springsteen’s Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour, which has a “No Kings” theme, kicks off Tuesday in Minneapolis.

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Minnesota organizers have told state officials they expect 100,000 people could converge on the Capitol grounds, where last June’s event drew an estimated 80,000 people.

The St. Paul rally will also feature singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda,Sen. Bernie Sanders and a long list of other activists, labor leaders and elected officials.

The White House dismissed the nationwide protests as the product of “leftist funding networks” with little real public support.

“The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

Rallies are also planned in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events, said in an interview. Countries with constitutional monarchies call the protests “No Tyrants,” he said.

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For those unable to attend in person, another activist group, Stand Up For Science, is hosting a “virtual and accessible” event online.

National organizers told reporters in an online news conference Thursday that they expect Saturday’s protests to be larger than the first two rounds of No Kings rallies, which they estimate drew more than 5 million people in June and more than 7 million in October.

“This administration’s actions are angering not just Democratic voters or folks in big blue city centers – they are crossing a line for people in red and rural areas, in the suburbs, all over the country,” said Leah Greenberg, the other co-executive director of Indivisible. “The defining story of this Saturday’s mobilization is not just how many people are protesting, but where they are protesting,”

Two-thirds of the RSVPs have come from outside of major urban centers, Greenberg said, listing registration surges in conservative-leaning states like Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota and Louisiana, as well in competitive suburban areas of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

“Millions of us are rising up from all walks of life, from rural communities to big cities at No Kings,” said Katie Bethell, executive director of MoveOn, another major organizer. “And as we do so, we will send the loudest, clearest message yet that this country does not belong to kings, dictators, tyrants. It belongs to us.”

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