Work resumes on stalled apartment project in south Minneapolis

A building project stalled by the abrupt 2018 financial problems of Thor Construction is back on track with new partners resuming construction of the south Minneapolis apartment building.

On Thursday, construction crews turned their attention to what has looked like an abandoned foundation with weeds and the early stages of an elevator shaft on the corner of S. Park and Franklin avenues.

Soon, the property — newly named Park & Franklin Lofts — is expected to become a four-story market-rate apartment building made of brick and wood.

Construction of the 35,000-square-foot building is expected to be completed next summer and offer 43 units and 17 parking spaces across the street from Peavey Field Park.

Building owner Tashitaa Tufaa said the development should fill a need for moderately priced, family-oriented rental housing in the evolving south Minneapolis neighborhood.

"The focus at Park & Franklin Lofts is to create attainable housing for people and their families who live and work in the city," said Tufaa, who originally bought into the project in 2016.

Construction started in the fall of 2017 but halted as the original contractor, the Black-owned Thor Construction, left the project in 2018.

Today the $8.5 million apartment project is getting a second life, and allowing Tufaa, who is Black and from Ethiopia, to realize his long-held dream of creating housing for other immigrants and Minnesotans like himself.

Tufaa, who owns the school bus firm Metropolitan Transportation Network and has 300 workers in north Minneapolis, Fridley and Minnetonka, said some of his employees will move to the new apartments. They often complained about the inability to find affordable rents, a problem Tufaa is determined to fix.

Finding "affordable housing is a headache. It drives me crazy. ... I feel so very bad that Minneapolis workers often can't afford to live near where they work," Tufaa told Mayor Jacob Frey, council members and other attendees at the construction site Thursday morning.

"I want to benefit the community I live in," Tufaa said, adding that he used to live about a block from the project site he now owns.

Despite Thor's demise and ultimate delays, "I never gave up on the project, but I had to regroup and find a new project manager and construction partner," Tufaa said.

"It gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling to be part of this project and community," especially given the challenges, said Hollingsworth, who is Black and originally from Brazil.

Patrick McGlynn said it took four years to see "a really important project for the neighborhood" become a reality. He found the site in 2016 and brought it to the attention of Thor, which showed the project to Tufaa. Tufaa was immediately interested and bought the land.

"My job as the developer is to complete Tashitaa's vision of creating more attainable housing in an area of the city that really needs more housing," McGlynn said.

"Also, this is a privately financed project [so] we are showing that this type of project can be done without public financing."

Frey applauded the development's success despite Thor, COVID-19, the economic downturn and civil unrest.

"That [allows] a diversity of different socioeconomic backgrounds," Frey said. "We need more of this."

The project's revival marks the second Thor project to win a second life in recent weeks.

One month ago, Target Corp. agreed to provide the headquarters space that Thor vacated inside the Regional Acceleration Center (RAC) in north Minneapolis to the adult-job training outfit Summit Academy OIC.

Target will charge Summit Academy no rent for the first two years and a discounted lease for the next three years.

Target officials said the effort was a way to invest in north Minneapolis, to create highly coveted technology job training and internships to Black residents and to help neighbors in the region overcome social and racial inequities.