Star Tribune
Olmsted County regrouping after failed grant bid for homeless shelter
ROCHESTER – It took less than three months to crush this community’s hopes for a new homeless shelter largely to be paid for with state funds.
Olmsted County officials in September crowed about their plans to renovate a longtime low-income apartment building into an 80-bed overnight shelter. They hoped to use $10 million in one-time grant money related to homelessness the Minnesota Legislature had passed earlier this year.
Yet the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) denied Olmsted County’s grant application at the end of November, leaving local housing officials scrambling to figure out next steps to address increasing homelessness in the area.
“There’s short, medium and long-term needs that we need to be addressing in our community,” said Dave Dunn, Olmsted County’s housing director. “If it takes a few years to get there, what are going to have to do to bridge that gap?”
Olmsted County typically estimates about 200 unhoused adults and 400 unhoused children live in the area, though homeless counts have increased in recent months.
The nonprofit-run Rochester Community Warming Center is the only overnight shelter in town. It routinely fills up this time of year — staff say more than 100 people were turned away in November.
County officials have worked with local nonprofits for more than a year on plans for a new homeless shelter in the area as only the nonprofit-run Rochester Community Warming Center typically houses people overnight. The county is also looking to replace its own housing offices, called ECHO (Empowering Connections and Housing Outreach) within the next few years as the building used ages into disrepair.
Rochester housing officials thought they found the solution in the Residences of Old Town Hall building, just five blocks east of downtown. Built in the 1960s, it served as a low-income apartment building and dorm units for Luther College.
Last fall the county negotiated a purchase agreement with owner and financial broker Jeff Allman to buy the building for $5 million.
The idea was to create a new Housing Stability Center with overnight beds for homeless residents administered by Catholic Charities of Southern Minnesota, which currently runs the Warming Center. The new center also would have included renovated office space for county housing officials.
The project would have cost about $12.7 million, with $10 million coming from a new homeless shelter funding pool from the state.
Yet other communities had similar ideas. State officials told Olmsted County last month there were 97 applications totaling $367 million in requests. There was only $100 million available; Olmsted County didn’t make the cut.
“The need far exceeded the supply,” Dunn said.
The county’s purchase agreement with Allman runs until mid-March, and Dunn said the Olmsted County Board will review the issue in January to decide whether to move ahead with the property.
In the meantime, other organizations are stepping up to help. The local Salvation Army is taking on overflow from the Warming Center this winter, sheltering up to 20 more people nightly.
Steve Friederich, the Rochester Salvation Army’s program manager, said the Salvation Army didn’t need to use its building for overflow during the first two weeks of December. But the need for temporary housing continues to grow among local nonprofits and government entities.
“We’re not always able to get everyone housed the way we want to,” Friederich said. “My hope is we can regroup as a team and see if there’s any viable options and funding to make that happen.”
Josh Franklin, an attorney from St. Paul, stopped for a moment in the middle of First Avenue to admire the large “Go Lynx” text painted on the street. He thinks the timing of the team’s success is beneficial to the city, mentioning it would be the first professional championship in Minnesota since before the pandemic, and the unrest following the murder of George Floyd.
“Seeing this here … in 2024 just really gives an entirely new feeling to the city, bringing back togetherness,” Franklin said.
Minneapolis City Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw attended Tuesday night’s game with fellow Council Member Andrea Jenkins. Vetaw believes there’s more confidence in the Lynx’s chances this year given their past success.
“We got hyped up about the Timberwolves, but there’s a little bit more certainty in this,” Vetaw said.
In interviews with fans leaving the arena and others who watched at the Minneapolis women’s sports bar A Bar of Their Own, most said they had started following the team closely in the past several years. The popularity of Indiana rookie guard Caitlin Clark has brought new attention to women’s basketball. But some have been watching for much longer.
“I always thought women’s sports were popular, I think everybody just kind of joined the bandwagon,” said Crystal Ruiz, a season-ticket holder.
CBRE, which marketed the property, declined to comment on the sale.
Adam Duininck, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, said while the low sales prices might sound alarming, there are bright spots. Homeowners in the city are facing a few tough years of property tax increases as commercial values drop, he acknowledged. But the lower prices have also enabled new players to buy downtown properties, paving the way for fresh ideas to transform the urban core.
“Hopefully, they come into the market with a certain kind of energy and optimism that helps drive the market back up,” he said, adding public safety improvements have also fueled recent momentum.
Take the Kickernick Building, which recently opened an art gallery. Earlier this year, Twin Cities-based United Properties sold the historic former warehouse on the edge of the CBD for $3.79 million. In 2017, United paid $19.5 million for the building.
Just a couple blocks away, Tom McCarver and Steve Boynton bought a mixed-use, nearly 31,000-square-foot building at the corner of Seventh Street and Hennepin Avenue that most recently housed Seven Steakhouse & Sushi. Last month, they paid about $4.3 million, slightly more than half of what it sold for in November 2017.
Tom McCarver, CEO of Hennepin Real Estate Partners LLC, poses Tuesday on the rooftop of the Stimson Building in Minneapolis that formerly housed Seven Steakhouse & Sushi. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
After the restaurant closed during the pandemic, the building went into receivership and up for auction. McCarver and Boynton, executives at a company that owns billboards across the metro, were among nearly a dozen bidders. They won the auction in March, but because of “legal hurdles,” the sale didn’t close until last month.
A third wildfire burning within the Superior National Forest was discovered Tuesday near Bogus Lake in Cook County.
The fire, 45 acres in size, was active overnight into Wednesday as firefighters and aircraft continued suppression efforts, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The cause is unknown.
Bogus Lake is less than 20 miles northeast of Grand Marais.
A drought has put much of the upper Midwest, from northern Minnesota to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, under “above normal” conditions for potential wildland fire, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The Bogus Lake Fire is the second wildfire to be discovered in the Superior National Forest this week and the third one actively burning since early September.
Monday, a fire was detected on the eastern side of Shell Lake, about 4 miles north of Road 116 within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in St. Louis County. That fire is less than one acre, with the potential to spread east near Agawato Lake and the Sioux-Hustler Hiking Trail, the Forest Service said.
That fire grew to 45 acres and half of it was contained as of Oct. 1, according to the Forest Service. It is suspected of being caused by humans. Firefighters remain assigned to the fire.
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