Met Council backs real estate in Highland Bridge, University Avenue, East Seventh, Maplewood

Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
·2 min read
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The Metropolitan Council, the seven-county metro’s regional planning agency, approved a series of grants this week to back affordable housing and job creation, much of it along transit corridors.

One set of “Livable Communities” grants will support transit-oriented development in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Richfield.

The grants include $975,000 toward a mixed-use development led by Project for Pride in Living at 892 Seventh St. E. in St. Paul. Located between the Mexican consulate, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Phalen Boulevard, the structure will provide affordable housing to multi-generational families, as well as supportive services and retail. It would be situated near the future route of the Purple Line, a bus rapid transit project previously known as the Rush Line corridor.

Another grant for $889,000 will back the 2441 Arts Building, FilmNorth’s project at 2441 University Ave. W. in St. Paul, which is aimed at converting a former furniture showroom and warehouse near Raymond Avenue into the nonprofit’s film studio headquarters. The structure would also include indoor and outdoor cinemas, offices, classrooms and community gathering space. The existing building sits on the Green Line light rail corridor.

Through a separate but related pool of funds, the Met Council also approved “Livable Communities” grants geared toward efficient development, affordable housing, economic opportunities and job creation in in Bloomington, Brooklyn Center, Edina, Maplewood, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The Common Bond II project at 2260 Bohland Ave. in St. Paul will receive $575,000 toward a 60-unit senior development, the second of five affordable housing developments within Highland Bridge, the former location of a longstanding Ford car factory. The housing would be situated near the A Line bus rapid transit corridor.

The Gladstone Village 1 project in Maplewood will receive $1.2 million toward a four-story, 65-unit mixed-income rental housing development focused on families. Some of the most affordable units will be geared toward housing people with disabilities and individuals experiencing homelessness. The development, proposed by J.B. Vang, would sit on Frost Avenue and English Street, near the future Purple Line.

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