New life - again - for lofts in Lowertown

And you thought only cats had nine lives.

It appears the tortured Lofts at Farmers Market housing project in St. Paul will get a new lease on life less than a week after a dispute over financing threatened it and several other big projects in the city.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman now has gained the support of enough City Council members to move forward with a $9 million bonding deal to finance the building's construction.

A special meeting is expected to be set for next Thursday, at which the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA), which is made up of the City Council members, will vote on the financing package.

"We got this thing resolved and can move on to get the thing done," said Council Member Dan Bostrom.

Earlier this week, some on the HRA were leery about the bonding because it would use the agency's levy, taxpayer money, to guarantee the project if something went bad. The agency's chair, Dave Thune, canceled this week's meeting because he wouldn't support that plan.

Coleman, who sees the project as catalytic to continuing the buzz in Lowertown, wants it done. The cancellation prompted the mayor to halt work on all city projects in his recently announced, multimillion-dollar Rebuild St. Paul initiative. He said waiting on the financing could kill the project.

The housing project across the street from the St. Paul Farmers Market, at 5th and Wall Streets, has been in the works for much of the decade, but economic challenges and legal fights have dogged its progress.

The current incarnation, the $13 million Lofts at Farmers Market, calls for 58 units of market-rate apartment housing and 2,000 square feet of retail. Currently, it's a hole on a corner that has already siphoned at least $3 million in city funds.