A project to rescue the historic Upper Post of Fort Snelling from oblivion and turn it into affordable housing for veterans got a lifeline from state lawmakers just minutes before the end of the legislative session — but at a high cost.
In a feat of furious lobbying from a politically connected developer and the building trades union, the Legislature in its infrastructure bill directed the Minnesota Housing Finance Authority (MHFA) to use its bonding authority for the Fort Snelling Upper Post project.
Cobbled together with other public and private money, the plan is nearing fruition. Gov. Mark Dayton is expected to sign or veto the infrastructure bill soon.
Despite the "affordable housing" moniker, the total price tag to convert 26 old military buildings into 176 units is more than $100 million — or $600,000 per unit. That's more than twice the cost of a median-priced single-family home in Minneapolis.

"Six hundred thousand per unit does not sound affordable to me," said Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson, a Republican candidate for governor. The county would also be part of the Upper Post project, which sits in unincorporated Hennepin County near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
The Legislature made sure cost would not get in the way of the project, writing into law that the MHFA "shall not include in its review of the project any per-unit cost limitations."
Project supporters — a long list of influential backers like Dayton, legislators and local elected officials — say the per-unit cost is misleading because half would come from restoring historic buildings according to exacting standards, accomplished in part with special federal tax credits.
The alternative, they say, is to continue to allow the site to lie fallow at great cost. According to a 2015 report from the state Department of Natural Resources — which took over the site in 1971 — the agency expected to spend nearly $2.3 million during the following decade to patrol the site, clear away debris and maintain structures to prevent incidents like a building collapse in 2009.