Everwood Co submits proposal for Lehmann Center
Featured, Real Estate — By Thatcher Imboden on October 28, 2010 6:20 amEverwood Company’s Elizabeth Flannery and David Dye met with the Lowry Hill East Neighborhood Association (LHENA) on October 27, 2010 to discuss their proposal to the Minneapolis Public Schools to purchase and redevelop the Lehmann Center site at 1006 West Lake Street. The current site contains an approximately 140,000 square foot building along with a large surface parking lot and most recently used by the school district for a few school programs and administrative offices. As a part of district restructuring, the district intends to sell the property.
The district is soliciting proposals from interested properties before considering whether to sell the property or give development rights to any particular party. Dye said that Everwood submitted a proposal and said the school district had hoped to make a decision on how to move forward by the end of October, though Dye doubted that the district would move that quickly.
Everwood’s proposal calls for renovating the existing building into 99 units of apartments and building a new four story 112-unit apartment building with two-levels of below-street-grade parking to serve both buildings. Both buildings would contain a mix of affordable and market-rate units, with the existing building containing artist live/work and workforce housing. Parking at a rate of 1:1 or 1:1.25 (presumably to the number of units) would be provided, as well as some visitor parking. A small surface parking lot would also exist on the site.
Flannery stated there were a lot of new units in the Uptown/Lyn-Lake communities that are high-end (just over $2.00 per square foot rent per month, so $2,000 for a 1,000 square foot 2BR unit). This project will use some market rate units to help subsidize the cost of providing some affordable units.
Asked about how this workforce/artist housing project could get financing when another recent project failed to go forward after concerns about getting financing. Dye responded by stating that they would utilize historic tax credits and bonds rather than other tax credits that other projects sought. In addition, Dye believed that the other site was challenged by having a commercial property valued associated with it, presumably a higher value per foot than the Lehmann Center site.
If selected, Everwood hopes to close on the property in late 2011 and start construction on both buildings immediately.
The Lehmann Center Building was first built as a self-threading needle company in 1907 and was purchased by the Buzza Company in 1923, which was famous for its greeting cards. The company added several additions during the 1920s before closing in 1942. The building then was home to various government agencies. The rear of the site, which currently is home to a depressed parking lot, was home to a building materials company before and for a period after the railroad trench just north of 29th Street was built in the mid-1910s. As a result, the site has a historically significant connection with the trench through a tunnel under the 29th Street viaduct, which at one time connected the industry to the railroad. Flannery and Dye, when asked, stated that they would like to reconnect the site to the Midtown Greenway, which now occupies the trench if possible.
It is unclear if any other proposals have been submitted for consideration to the Minneapolis Public Schools, but Everwood believes that they are not alone in pursuing the site.
Thatcher Imboden
How cities work and change, how they are the product of their inhabitants and outside forces, and the resulting livability keep me thinking and dreaming about the future. I work in urban real estate development, am Past President of an Uptown business organization, grew up in Uptown, was on an Uptown neighborhood association Board, and am an Uptown and Lyn-Lake historian.
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4 Comments
Given the number of people requesting the Buzza materials in Minneapolis Special Collections, I’d say they’re certainly not the only ones interested! I think almost every time I was there to look at Buzza collections there was always someone else doing the same thing. I’ll be curious to hear more about these plans as they unfold. I think the 1:1 or 1:25 parking seems kind of high, though. I also hope that the ultimate use of the site will include some office space (perhaps a blend of housing and offices within the building itself? That’s certainly found in other cities, although I’m not sure how common it is in Minneapolis.) What are their plans for the tower portion?
I think the whole building will be apartments. I’d agree on the inclusion of some sort of commercial use, perhaps in the basement where there’s actually a lot of light on the existing corridor and ample ceiling height. Could be less expensive production space for artists or small businesses.
They did say that their hope was to have live/work units, which could result in commercial use in that space. But I think you have to live there too. Not just work there.
I saw the lights on and the leaded windows open in the tower. I was pleased to see something approximating chandeliers still up there. There was a lovely showroom up there once.
I was in the top room not long ago. While it’s cool, it appears to have been renovated sometime in the 70s or 80s and lost a lot of the charm. The colored glass isn’t original. Would be one heck of an apartment unit with it’s tall ceilings. I’ll post some photos at some point.