Star Tribune
$500 million housing development proposed in Duluth, its largest ever
DULUTH — The scale of a planned $500 million housing and retail development overlooking Lake Superior here, the city’s largest development of its kind, is massive enough to be likened to the creation of a new neighborhood.
Incline Village — planned for the former Central High School hillside property with the famous view — is expected to include 1,300 market-rate apartments and condos to be built in three phases over seven to 10 years. Located in the center of the city, it would also be home to 80,000 square feet of retail space and several public spaces, including a trailhead pavilion and potentially an amphitheater.
The developer is New York-based Luzy Ostreicher of Chester Creek View LLC and Incline Plaza Development LLC. He bought 53 acres for $8 million last March from the Duluth school district, which recently developed a back portion of the property for an administrative building. The 50-year-old school was demolished in 2022 after sitting empty since 2011. Two major development deals for the site fell through since then.
Duluth’s population of about 86,000 has barely budged for decades, seen on the green signs as you drive into the city, said longtime resident Jeff Schiltz of ICS Builds, representing the developer.
“A development like this has the ability to literally change that sign,” he said.
The multi-building project is undergoing an Alternative Urban Areawide Review to study how different development scenarios will affect the environment. The project is contingent on approval of that review, but last week the Duluth Economic Development Authority approved an agreement with Ostreicher’s LLCs that establishes the framework for the project’s tax increment financing (TIF). It includes the first phase, which is intended to pay for infrastructure such as utility connections.
Subsequent TIF districts will still need to be approved. Tax subsidies are expected to account for a large chunk of the developer’s financing gap, which is projected to be up to $130 million, according to the city.
The planned public amenities are required by the agreement, but details, including financing and design, aren’t finalized. The trailhead will connect to the Duluth Traverse and other trails.
City Council President Roz Randorf said the project was a good candidate for tax subsidy because its level of investment will increase the city’s tax base.
“And this hasn’t been on the tax rolls for a really long time,” she said of the property.
Construction on the first set of apartments and condos encompassing 340 units and 30,000 square feet of retail is set to begin this summer. Demand will indicate how soon the remaining phases are built. But because of the project’s location, the full scale should be realized to make it successful, Schiltz said. Perched on the hilltop and surrounded by trees, buildings aren’t visible from nearby roads.
The name, Incline Village, is intended to evoke the city’s Incline Railway that operated from 1891 to 1939, climbing Duluth’s steep hillside.
A plaza with a pedestrian-oriented style is planned, with room for food trucks and other vendors, a skating rink and community events. Retail space may include a restaurant, hair and nail salons, child care and a coffee shop.
The still-standing former Secondary Technical Center building will serve as a real estate sales office and job trailer until it is demolished to make way for the last phase of construction.
Schiltz said the complex project could employ up to 1,000 construction workers over the next decade. Incline Village is expected to be a destination, he said, and Ostreicher is cognizant of the city’s potential for growth, with an expanding medical district and other major projects like the Northern Lights Express in the offing.
Landlocked cities like Duluth don’t often get to create new neighborhoods, said Jeff Anderson, a spokesman for ICS Builds.
“That’s what’s happening here, and it’s very exciting,” he said.
Provided it clears the environmental review, the city doesn’t doubt the project will be fully realized, said Ryan Pervenanze, manager of planning and development for the city. Public hearings on that review are planned for spring.
Rachel Johnson is president of Area Partnership for Economic Expansion (APEX), a private group that promotes regional business development. She spoke at a recent Duluth Economic Development Authority meeting in favor of public financing for the project.
Developers, large employers, financiers and builders told APEX in the past year that a lack of housing is impeding growth, she said. Duluth’s latest housing report showed pent-up demand for housing, both market rate and affordable.
The City Council is expected to vote on the tax credit measure Feb. 12.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
Minnesota may get snow Thursday. Here’s how much more the Halloween Blizzard Of 1991 dropped.
Suspect “led us to the evidence” in Montana camper’s brutal killing, initially thought to have been bear attack
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
Minnesota may get snow Thursday. Here’s how much more the Halloween Blizzard Of 1991 dropped.
Suspect “led us to the evidence” in Montana camper’s brutal killing, initially thought to have been bear attack