business

AUDUBON CROSSING

2510 Polk St. NE., Minneapolis

Type: Rental apartments

Units: 30

Cost: $7.8 million

Developer: MetroPlains LLC

Details: After years of planning and arranging financing, the 30-unit Audubon Crossing mixed-income rental housing development has been completed and opened in northeast Minneapolis, featuring some advanced "green building" design concepts.

The project initially was proposed by Majdi Wadi, owner of the Holy Land Deli on Central Avenue, as a redevelopment vision for a handful of run-down houses he owned on the northwest corner of Polk St. and 25th Av. NE.

After several years of efforts by the city, the Audubon Neighborhood Association and St. Paul-based housing developer MetroPlains LLC, the new apartments opened in late August at 100 percent occupancy.

Audubon Crossing has 26 apartment units whose rents are based on affordability formulas for working families, plus four units that have been reserved for renters transitioning out of homelessness.

The collapse of the affordable housing tax credit market took a toll on the project's timeline, but it ended up a "go" after city officials procured $1 million in federal stimulus funding from the Section 1602 Tax Credit Exchange Program.

Another $1.1 million came from the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund and its sale of housing tax credits.

Randy Schold, co-president of MetroPlains, said Audubon Crossing is believed to be the first new housing development in Minnesota to win both Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification as well as to follow the low-income housing-specific design criteria of Minnesota Green Communities, which seek to greatly improve the energy efficiency of affordable housing in the state.

"I'd say the most noticeable green building feature with Audubon Crossing is the rainwater harvesting system," Schold said. "It collects all the rainwater on the roof and uses it to irrigate the lawn and native flora we've used in the landscaping plan."

DON JACOBSON

Don Jacobson is a freelance writer based in St. Paul. He can be contacted at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.