By Gretchen Nicholls, Twin Cities LISC and Kelly Koster, Community Journalist
March 7, 2012

In the past few months, the community, government, finance and development sectors came together to develop a comprehensive affordable housing plan for the Central Corridor. Now that their recommendations are on paper, we asked project team members to reflect on what they’d learned and their hopes for the future. Here are some highlights from their responses. 

BIG COLLABORATIONS CAN WORK; THERE IS COMMON GROUND
 
“One thing that was a bit of a surprise was a number of us had been thinking about these issues for a long time. I think we thought we had thought of everything. Then there were people who came in with different perspectives and added additional angles. It made the report complete.” Tim Thompson, Housing Preservation Project (Central Corridor Affordable Housing Partnership)
 
“It was valuable for me to get a better understanding of different stakeholders’ opinions and where there was common ground, because the process included residents and neighborhood voices, city government voices, potential developers, and even a few outside advocates’ voices.”   Cam Gordon, Minneapolis City Council
 
“I saw that there were more common desires for creating a healthy neighborhood. There’s not a whole lot of difference between what low, moderate, and high income people want.  It’s very clear that there are more common things than not.”
Eric Muschler, The McKnight Foundation (CCFC)
 
“It will be key for a wide variety of groups to support the plan, both community organizations and neighborhood groups and government bodies. Without that things are likely to languish.  I’m hoping people will get on board with this. We need to start moving ahead.” 
Tim Thompson, Housing Preservation Project (Central Corridor Affordable Housing Partnership)
 
THE NEED FOR CONTINUING COORDINATION
 
“I think the coordination is an ongoing challenge.  My fear/expectation is that it might dissolve.  Having somebody vested in it and willing to stay engaged and keep it going really helped.  Maybe the Funders Collaborative should keep it going….I hope we can have a unified voice if it’s needed to get funding. I think there’s potential to do that, maybe even keep working on identifying opportunity sites.  My fear is that it will get more challenging.  This was funded with a grant. It’s easy to get divided.”
 Cam Gordon, Minneapolis City Council 
 
“Moving forward, I don’t know that the collaborative spirit will naturally come out. I think we’ve got a good set of recommendations. The real test will be whether the government actors will be committed to moving forward on some of the strategies that need to be figured out.” 
Tim Thompson, Housing Preservation Project (Central Corridor Affordable Housing Partnership)
 
“The key challenges will involve coming to any one consensus about how much affordable housing is needed along the corridor.  Also, it’s always a challenge to make decisions about the allocation of scarce resources to provide affordable housing and redevelopment.” 
Diane Nordquist, Saint Paul PED
 
FUNDING CONCERNS
 
“No idea can move forward, especially in development, without funds. The biggest challenge will be getting the mix of funds to bring the Big Picture to some fruition. It’s about putting the whole corridor in line with each development. All of these costs—developers are hard pressed for funds, especially for non profits who aren’t motivated by the bottom line.  We’re motivated by people.”
Brenda Bailey, Model Cities
 
“The biggest challenge will be moving to implement the recommendations given the scarce resources and scarce city staff.  Foundations and the private sector will need to play a key role.” 
Luis Pereira, Saint Paul PED
 
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
 
“The biggest challenge will be keeping those most affected informed and involved in the preservation and addition of affordable housing…. The biggest opportunity is to present findings to the communities along the corridor and ask for their reactions. Then add those reactions as an addendum to the report. I also believe there’s an opportunity for all involved to work together and have this project be a model for affordable housing along transit corridors in the rest of the Twin Cities and around the country.”
Bill Lerman, Jewish Community Action (Community Agreements Compact Committee)
 
PRIORITIES/CATALYTIC PROJECTS
 
“It’s worth trying to identify opportunity sites and guide development in the right direction. I’ve got some areas I represent where there’s great development pressure. There’s the Prospect Park station on the edge of Minneapolis and the West Bank area. There’s lots of underutilized land. If we’re not careful, we could see things slip.” 
Cam Gordon, Minneapolis City Council
   
PUBLIC POLICY CHANGE
 “Two opportunities that our office is interested in working on are the two cities’ density bonus policies, which are a way to get more affordable units beyond the limited government resources by using incentives for developers. There are also a few legislative proposals that need work—one is TIF for TOD. The other is property tax breaks for landlords who agree to affordability restrictions against rising rents.”
Tim Thompson, Housing Preservation Project (Central Corridor Affordable Housing Partnership)

For more information on the Big Picture Project, including objectives, participants, and contact information, please visit their partner page.
 

By Funders Collaborative, February 29, 2012

At the heart of the work of the Central Corridor are the partners who come together in issue-based work groups to build shared solutions to ensure that neighborhoods, residents and businesses broadly share in the benefits of investment along the new transit line.

Rarely does this group of public, private, nonprofit, advocacy and community-based stakeholders – representing the Funders Collaborative’s now five active groups – convene in one place. But that’s exactly what they did in late January at a roundtable hosted by the Collaborative.

The purpose of the session was to encourage communication, collaboration and learning among partners working for collective impact on the Central Corridor. Representatives from each of the groups provided updates on their work, as well as insights about working across sectors, jurisdictional boundaries, and issue areas to affect change along the corridor.

The result: An informative and enlightening discussion aimed at sharing learning, tension points and common struggles as the groups navigate various phases of the work from convening, to learning, strategy development, implementation, and measurement.

“The partner group work session was a valuable opportunity to learn about all that has been accomplished along the Central Corridor and what still needs to be done,” said Chris Ferguson,” chair of the Business Resources Collaborative, one of the five active working groups. “The discussion enabled me to realize how the work we are doing on the Business Resources Collaborative can leverage the work of the other groups around the table. Together, we can help our community maximize the benefit of this nearly $1 billion infrastructure investment.”

The five groups represented were: The Big Picture Project, the Business Resources Collaborative, the Joint Committee on Equal Opportunity and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, Jobs Central, and the Transit Oriented Development Investment Framework.

Below are some of the learnings and tension points discussed by each of the groups. For more information and progress updates, check out our partner page.

The Big Picture Project (Affordable Housing Group):

Objective: Preserve and strengthen the availability of affordable housing along the Central Corridor.

Work Stage: Strategy development

Key Learnings/Wins:

• By listening to the community we learned more about building healthy neighborhoods with affordable housing as a tool vs. building affordable housing
• We have a better understanding of what is possible and feasible goals that can focus implementation
• There is interest in our work/approach nationally

Tension Points:

• The need is so great vs. what we can actually accomplish

• Balancing interests of both cities

Business Resources Collaborative (Business Development Group):

Objective: Create a comprehensive, integrated mix of services that mitigate construction, support business development, and promote long-term economic development.

Work Stage: Implementation, Measurement

Key Learnings/Wins:

• Don’t give up. After many ups and downs in a tense and competitive atmosphere, we now have the ability to have tough conversations about the impact of construction on businesses in a polite and productive way with meaningful outcomes. It took time to build trust and work through issues, but we found common ground in the common goal of proactively helping businesses survive and thrive.
• There is real opportunity around the economic development side of the equation – to create/bring living wage jobs to the corridor.

Tension Points:

• On the west end of corridor, construction is over but people aren’t coming back. Concern over getting consumers back to businesses post construction.
• Measurement – the group is struggling with what type of measures can we put in place; determining the impact of the various pieces we put in place, i.e. what has worked and what hasn’t.
   

Joint Committee on E.O. & D.B.E. (Contractor & Workforce Inclusion):

(Joint Committee on Equal Opportunity & Disadvantaged Business Enterprise)

Objective: Oversee progress toward workforce and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) goals (18% workforce hours for minorities and 6% for women and 15% of contract dollars for certified DBEs).

Work phase:  Implementation, Measurement

Key Learnings/Wins:

• Great Minds retreat of all interested parties around the table – brought together organizations involved in construction workforce and contracting, including community-based training organizations, unions, advocacy groups, minority and women contracting associations, prime contractors, and enforcement agencies. This retreat was a big win and helped to develop a joint strategy.

• One of the gems of the work, creating a virtual workforce tool LRTWorks – an online networking resource for individuals, both union and non-union, interested in working on the Central Corridor.
•  Unions are a willing partner at the table  - helping them achieve their diversity goals.

Tension Points:

• This work is still hard.  New tables, tools and strategies can help, but there is a need to continue to collaborate and implement well.
• Verifying DBEs can be an especially difficult subject and one that continues to take close attention of partners.

Jobs Central (Job Access Group)

Objective:  Connecting Central Corridor residents to jobs.

Work Phase: Learning

Key Learnings/Wins:

• Spent good deal of time up front educating each other – workforce development &  economic development perspectives coming together.
• Now that everyone is at the table - actively focused on outreach to businesses and residents along the corridor; have honed in on the sectors and neighborhoods we will focus on.
• More time consuming than anticipated

Tension Points:

• While we had some success bringing people together, we started with only 2/3 of the key stakeholders at the table. The business sector was missing. Lots of data, can be overwhelming and lack meaning at times – how to make sense of the data, agree on data to use
   

TOD Investment Framework

Objective: Create a comprehensive public investment framework to leverage appropriate private investment in the Corridor. Identify critical investments that might otherwise be missed.

Work Phase: Strategy

Key Learnings/Wins:

• Developed a Corridor Investment Tool to track public and private investment in the Corridor
• We’ve all done station area plans, the primary question: What kind of infrastructure needs to be in place to implement those plans in a way that leverages private investments, other related policy issues?
• Has the framework provided information that has allowed government entities to make different public investment decisions? Yet to be determined.
   

Tension Points:

• Who owns the investment tool/framework – literally and figuratively?
• Green space – how do we make sure the planned open spaces get built?

We invite you to learn more about our working groups here on our partner page.  To learn more about a specific group or to contact a working group leader, please visit our partner’s pages: The Big Picture Project, the Business Resources Collaborative, the Joint Committee on Equal Opportunity and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, Jobs Central, and the Transit Oriented Development Investment Framework.

By: Dick Poppele, PPERRIA President
February 23, 2012

The Prospect Park 2020 project began with a neighborhood vision for redevelopment and has now produced a pre-development plan validated by market research with the support of community residents and businesses. The project has proactively shaped the vision, expectations, and implementation strategy for the station area.

The purpose of the project was to craft a pre-development Framework for the Prospect Park station area and the University Avenue gateway in anticipation of the Central Corridor light rail line. Businesses, landowners and the community, as well as interested partners and investors, all played an active role in shaping the project.

The Prospect Park East River Road Improvement Association (PPERRIA) proposed a two-track planning process which would address immediate market opportunities while simultaneously developing a long-term growth framework.

• Track 1: A six month effort to develop a comprehensive Station Area/University Avenue pre-development framework describing the public realm and connectivity, as well as the mix and intensity of residential, commercial and institutional uses.
• Track 2: An immediate 60-90 day exploration of development scenarios targeting a specific property and existing business with a pressing need for space and need to determine its opportunity for expansion on the avenue. The Textile Center was an ideal candidate.

Outreach was a priority

Community outreach and community acceptance are critical to successful future development. To ensure that all the deliberations of the Project Steering Committee are widely understood, we have set up a Prospect Park 2020 website with minutes, proceedings, plans, and other material related to the project.

Residential community outreach began with the neighborhood organization, PPERRIA, and its 700+ members. Project details were discussed at monthly PPERRIA meetings, and a half-day workshop in August allowed for public feedback and comment. The workshop featured a scale model of the project area that invited attendees to explore proposals with movable objects on the model board. An Open House followed in December that featured all the findings and recommendations from the project along with displays of maps, development objectives, market analyses and the scale model. Some 14 hands-on house parties reached yet more residents.

Other stakeholder communities included in the process were the businesses, landowners and public sector (City, County, University, and Metropolitan Council) represented in the area. The business community is centered along SE University Avenue between the St. Paul border and 27^th Avenue SE. The 14 member Steering Committee also include representatives from three businesses.

The Findings

The proposed Framework was built around three essential elements:

1. A connected public realm framework that will support the quality of life and build value for the adjacent parcels.
2. Reservoir shared parking that can serve the needs of future retail, commercial and institutional development.
3. The Textile Center's potential expansion that will become a catalyst attracting other arts-related organizations and businesses while enhancing the “sense of place”.

The market potential for the area derives from the centrality of location in the region and proximity to the University of Minnesota, the University Hospital and Medical Center, and the proposed University Research Park. Market research indicates this area could absorb development totaling about $438 million including nearly 2000 mixed use residential units and over 600,000 square feet of commercial/cultural development.

Results to Date

The vision, research and framework from this project have now resulted in the sale of a major property adjacent to the Prospect Park station to a developer who is planning a large residential development that conforms to the framework and vision for the area.

The Textile center, a national consortium of fiber-related arts organizations which draws 200,000 visits a year from the entire Metropolitan area, has made a commitment to remain in the area. The Center also plans to expand their facilities to develop an arts center near the Prospect Park station. The goal is to attract other art-related venues - much like the University's Goldstein Gallery – including arts groups and a regional library. This commitment was made in direct response to the effort put forth in this project.

For more information, visit http://www.prospectpark2020.org/.

February 15, 2012

By: Isabel Broyld, Neighborhood Development Center - U7 Project Manager

Nearly four years ago, the Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) invited seven community development organizations to partner together to help Saint Paul small businesses thrive during the Central Corridor Light Rail Construction. This collaborative became the University Avenue Business Preparation Collaborative or U7. The U7 collaborative has now provided quality services and resources to small business owners for a full round of Central Corridor Light Rail Transit construction along University Avenue. And what a round it was! In 2011, we learned quite a bit, we were glad to be part of the effort, and we are now busy preparing for round two.
 
Lessons learned in 2011
 
In 2011, construction focused on the stretch of University between Hamline and Emerald Street, also known as Segment 1. In this area, U7 Staff, consultants, interns and volunteers worked one-on-one with 51 small business owners; 25 of which successfully applied for the Ready for Rail Forgivable Loan. U7 provided extensive services and resources to those 51 business owners, totaling 1548.8 hours of technical assistance, material production and coaching. Specific examples include assistance with bookkeeping, accounting, cash-flow projections, preparing financial statements, legal, logo development, branding, interior design, window signage, pre-façade improvement work, city issues, construction issues, marketing, social media, securing catering opportunities for restaurants, assisting with forgivable loan applications, media press and promotions. In addition, U7 staff engaged several businesses in the Discover the Central Corridor marketing efforts, promoting a coupon book, loyalty cards and other events.
 
Our observation of construction impacts so far is that small business owners drastically underestimated the impacts that construction would have on their businesses and often requested assistance from U7 at the last minute. Those last minute requests were difficult for us to address effectively. U7 has also found that businesses that survived Segment 1 construction are still experiencing a downturn in sales due to changes in customer traffic patterns – both vehicle and pedestrian. This year, our efforts will be to reach out to those Segment 1 businesses and engage our partners in a coordinated effort to restore traffic patterns.
 
Challenges in 2012
 
In 2012, construction will begin on Segment 2 which is the portion of University Avenue between Hamline and Rice. The biggest challenge facing U7 as we seek to serve these business owners is to gather more hands on deck to enable us to respond to last minute requests. Another challenge is that there are significantly more storefronts in Segment 2 when compared to Segment 1. This means higher demand for our services, and our corresponding work load will likely be much larger than last year. This brings us to our last challenge; a large majority of the businesses that operate in Segment 2 are Asian-owned small businesses. Although our engagement and partnerships with the Asian community continue to develop and improve, we still have considerable work ahead in developing strong relationships with this community.
 
How will U7 overcome the challenges?
 
We will work to form new and strengthen current partnerships with Asian organizations and increase our current level of outreach to Asian business owners. Recently we have seen positive results from these efforts. We will make stronger connections with Asian press agencies and place articles and advertisements in local papers about U7 services.
 
U7 will continue to conduct extensive door-to-door, print promotions and web outreach about the forgivable loan program targeted at eligible businesses. U7 will again conduct specific workshops about the forgivable loan in conjunction with Neighborhood Development Center’s Loan Officers. We will also provide one-on-one accounting, bookkeeping assistance and offer the full menu of U7 services to program applicants.
 
U7 staff and partners (Sparc, Greater Frogtown Community Development Corporation, and Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation) recently launched the U7 Façade Improvement Program and will facilitate about 15 façade improvement projects. U7 will continue to coordinate with the Asian Economic Development Association on façade improvements for Little Mekong (the area around the Western Station).
 
We are excited to partner with the Business Resources Collaborative to launch a new program, hopefully in May 2012, called the Discover the Central Corridor Business Backer Program. The purpose of the program is to provide moral and financial support for the businesses struggling with disruption from light-rail construction.  Simply put, the program provides communities – such as neighborhoods, churches, or employees of nearby businesses - a short-term, informal “adoption” process to help one or two specific Central Corridor businesses get through the hard times.
 
All in all, we feel encouraged by the work U7 accomplished in 2011 and are hopeful that our preparations and planning will prove fruitful for 2012.
 
For more information, visit us online at http://universityseven.squarespace.com.

By Funders Collaborative, January 19, 2012

Building light rail infrastructure is a major feat unto itself, but as Central Corridor stakeholders are well aware, doing so is only half of the task. Planning for connections to and from the light rail is of equal importance. Can people easily access the line? How do we ensure their safety? Are connections convenient and timely? Are we addressing the needs of the local community? How can we best maximize opportunities to create welcoming places to live, shop and work?

On January 12, Funders Collaborative members and Central Corridor bicycle, pedestrian, and transit stakeholders came together to discuss “Connections to the Central Corridor” as part of the Funders Collaborative’s first Learning Session of 2012. The event was hosted by the Funders Collaborative, in partnership with the Metropolitan Council, the City of St. Paul and Transit for Livable Communities.

During the session, attendees learned about transit connections, infrastructure connections, and ‘programming’ connections to the Central Corridor, including several dozen efforts currently planned or underway. 40% of all riders are expected to use transit to access the line, and 60% will be bikers and pedestrians, according to John Levin with Metro Transit, highlighting that planful connections are critical to the line’s success.

While different types of connection planning are underway across cities, there are consistencies in the work taking place along the Central Corridor, as learned from presentations featuring John Levin (Metro Transit), Jessica Rosenfeld (St. Paul Planning and Economic Development), Shaun Murphy and Haila Maze (City of Minneapolis Public Works and Community Planning and Economic Development, respectively), and Joan Pasiuk (Transit for Livable Communities).

• Even outside of the Central Corridor, there is an immense amount of work already taking place to plan for bicycle, pedestrian, and transit connections (Presentation materials with examples are included below).
• Community input is crucial to success. One example where extensive community engagement is taking place is Metro Transit’s Central Corridor Transit Services Study, which seeks to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of bus service in and around the corridor.  For this study, Metro Transit will expand upon its tradition community input practices and incorporate the Trusted Advocate Outreach model in partnership with the District Councils Collaborative of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. This model outreach effort will hire community members to directly engage their neighbors.
• Extensive planning has been done by both cities for bicycle and pedestrian connections to and from the Corridor. Implementation of these plans is well underway, but it will take time to fully realize the plans.  Often, route improvements are easier and less expensive to implement if they are incorporated into other projects or improvements already in the works. For example, adding on-street bike lanes to roads that are being repaved or restriped requires minimal effort to make a big difference. Similarly, bridges being built or rebuilt can add a bike/pedestrian path for minimal incremental cost, especially when compared to the cost of building a completely separate structure.
• Safety is a primary concern across all connection modes. From traffic planning to countdown timers to clear signage to pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and ramps, planners are working to ensure the safest access possible in and around the Corridor.
• Given extensive plans and limited resources, each presenter talked about how they prioritize projects along the Corridor. When asked about how cities make decisions, Saint Paul City Council Member Russ Stark suggested that it’s necessary to be both planful (including setting strategic priorities) and opportunistic (being able to take advantage of opportunities as they arise).  

During the discussion, participants raised areas of opportunity (where they might work together), in addition to raising questions that remain open.

• How do we fill in the connection “blanks”? For example, how can cities, businesses and communities leverage opportunities like Nice Ride or HOURCAR to help bridge gaps?
• When implementing bicycle and pedestrian connections: what are the essential elements versus elements that make a great place? What is the mechanism to make sure that great placemaking occurs?
• How do we get choice riders to think that they are a part of transit?
• How do we change the conversation to think about how much cars cost versus what transit costs? (Ex: parking becomes a commodity, not an expectation.)
• Can this be the corridor that changes how families use transit? Can we create an easy, safe and enjoyable experience, perhaps even enabling families to build wealth (eliminating the need for an extra car)?
• While cities are creating locally relevant strategic plans, how do we begin creating a regional plan that can guide all of our work and allow us to tap into Federal funding?

Participants recognized while there are still gaps to fill and work to be done, the Central Corridor stakeholders are well down the path to creating workable and inviting connections that will enable people to access the new light rail line by transit, bicycle or on foot.

January 13, 2012 Learning Session Materials

Meeting Agenda

Bike, Ped and Transit Connections - Resources and Information

Central Corridor Sector Study- Project Summary

Minneapolis Central Corridor Bike Ped Update

Saint Paul Central Corridor Developments

Bike Walk Central Corridor Action Plan

By Funders Collaborative, December 20, 2011

The Central Corridor Funders Collaborative will head into the new year with close to $5 million available to invest in the Central Corridor during 2012-13. The latest round of pledges from its members pushes the total raised to just over $10 million since the group was formed in 2008 to ensure that residents, leaders and business owners are involved in and benefit from the investment in and around the light rail line connecting the Twin Cities.
 
“Through our Catalyst Fund, we’ve awarded close to $4.5 million to inform, engage and support community partnerships that are helping to build strong neighborhoods along the new rail line,” said Polly Talen, program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Funders Collaborative co-chair. “The efforts are working – and have drawn in an additional $48 million for related work in the Corridor area and region.”
 
The Funders Collaborative surpassed the $10 million mark with new, $250,000-plus per year commitments from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, McKnight Foundation, F.R. Bigelow Foundation, Ford Foundation and The St. Paul Foundation.
 
The Catalyst Fund investment model aims to encourage residents, leaders and business owners to learn about Corridor issues together, develop solutions that address shared goals and then work together to implement innovative, high impact projects. The effort focuses on working across the public and private sectors – and across geographic boundaries – to engage groups that have not typically been included in policy making and implementation.
 
Most of the Catalyst Fund grants have supported and been aligned with broad-based working groups building corridor-wide, shared solutions for affordable housing, business and economic development, contractor and workforce inclusion, job access and development of an investment framework to maximize the impact of public, private and non-profit sector investment in the Corridor.
 
Grants have ranged from $2,500 toward a consultation on creating manufacturing jobs in the Corridor to a $500,000 contribution to the Ready for Rail loan program helping small businesses prepare for construction.
 
The working group that has received and coordinated the largest share of funding, with $1.4 million so far, has been the Business Resources Collaborative (BRC), which was created to encourage businesses to prepare for construction and be in a position to thrive once the Central Corridor line begins operation. The BRC and its members have together coordinated over $10 million of new investment benefiting businesses along the Corridor.
 
Another major initiative is The Big Picture Project, which is helping to coordinate investments in affordable housing. So far, the project has brought together 24 participants from government, finance, development and community groups to look at how affordable housing can be preserved, developed and financed throughout the Corridor.
 
“We’re not just engaging the traditional participants in traditional policy areas,” said Ann Mulholland, vice president of grants and program at The Saint Paul Foundation and Funders Collaborative co-chair. “For example, we invested $75,000 in Springboard for the Arts to support Irrigate, an artist-led community development project that aims to engage artists and community members to create a cultural corridor along the line.
 
“A community grows and prospers where people share a strong attachment to place,” she said. “In the next two years, the Funders Collaborative will be focused on supporting inclusive, community-based projects that fit the focus of these working groups.”
 
About the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative
The Funders Collaborative is a coalition of 13 local and national funders who came together to ensure that the adjoining neighborhoods, residents and businesses broadly share in the benefits of public and private investment in the Central Corridor Light Rail Line connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul.
 
Members include:  Annie E. Casey Foundation, F. R. Bigelow Foundation, Ford Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Living Cities, Inc., McKnight Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, Northwest Area Foundation, Otto Bremer Foundation, Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Minnesota, The Saint Paul Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and Travelers Foundation.
 
###
 
Irrigate Photo Credit: Zoey Prinds Flash 

Erik Takeshita, Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Betsy Altheimer, Springboard for the Arts
Joe Spencer, Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s Office
Laura Zabel, Springboard for the Arts
Carol Coletta, ArtPlace
Jun-Li Wang, Springboard for  the Arts

November 17, 2011
By Big Picture Project Co-Chairs Gretchen Nicholls (Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation), Tom Streitz (City of Minneapolis) and Al Carlson (City of Saint Paul)

After four months of throwing ideas against a wall to see what sticks, the Big Picture Project Team revealed its draft proposal for a Central Corridor Affordable Housing Coordinated Plan at the fourth and final Community Forum last night (November 15, 2011).

The process was named to underscore the importance of keeping the “Big Picture” in sight while focusing on specific opportunities for strategic investment. Within the larger vision for the Central Corridor, affordable housing plays a vital role in creating access to opportunity for those most in need. Our investments in affordable housing must integrate anti-displacement and mortgage prevention, market rate housing, small business opportunities and jobs, green space, good design principles, and positive placemaking. By raising some boats, we must raise all boats.  

The goals of affordable housing also have to align with the other priorities for the corridor. Setting guidelines for what should be preserved and what should change requires strong community engagement. And achieving results requires robust developer capacity, a committed set of finance partners, and governmental leadership that sets the stage for private investment. To quote Albert Einstein, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” 

It’s important to remember that placemaking means different things to the diverse communities along the corridor. To achieve a corridor-wide vision of equity and vitality, housing must both respond to current contexts and seed future opportunities. Families that already live here must be supported to stay and thrive, while culturally and economically diverse new residents must be drawn to the area by the quality of life and mix of housing options.

Finding the right mix

An optimal mix of housing options along the Central Corridor will require a range of strategies and policies. Through the coordination of public and private investment, we hope to achieve greater impact in advancing our shared goals. A unified housing strategy for the whole corridor can not only attract millions of investment dollars to this stretch of the Twin Cities, it can stabilize existing housing stock, preserve affordable rentals, and make sure new development projects improve the quality of life for residents in the surrounding neighborhoods.

From ideas suggested by other national models and by our local partners, we’ve divided our options into the following policies and strategies. New resources and innovation are imperative. Multiple strategies will be needed to achieve our goals that include two critical areas:

I. Invest in activities that help low-income people stay in their homes, and address substandard and vacant properties

II. Invest in the production and preservation of long-term affordable housing

To demonstrate strong commitment to building out a greater potential for investment, the coordinated plan identifies a numeric goal that nearly doubles the baseline projection for new and preserved affordable housing units; a feat that will only occur if new resources (public and private) and ways of doing business are identified.

For more information, visit our Affordable Housing Group page, download the Draft Recommendations, or contact Gretchen Nicholls, Twin Cities LISC, 651-265-2280 or gnicholls@lisc.org.

October 18, 2011

Irrigate team members: l-r Erik Takeshita, Senior Program Officer, Twin Cities LISC, Betsy McDermott Altheimer of Springboard for the Arts, Joe Spencer, City of St Paul Director of Arts and Culture,  Laura Zabel, Executive Director of Springboard, Carol Coletta of ArtPlace, Jun-Li Wang, Artist Community Organizer, Springboard.

October 12, 2011 by Funders Collaborative

In the third quarter of 2011, the Funders Collaborative awarded nine grants totaling nearly $450,000. The grants support three of four Funders Collaborative goals, including the creation of a Strong Local Economy, Vibrant Transit-Oriented Places, and Effective Coordination and Collaboration.

A few highlights from Q3 include:

STRONG LOCAL ECONOMY

The Central Corridor Business Resources Collaborative, one of five Funders Collaborative partners, received $91,000 to support the convening and staffing of the BRC for 2011-2012, as it implements its Strategic Workplan and measures results. The BRC is a partnership of business coalitions, nonprofit community developers and local and regional governments. Find updates and resources related to the BRC  on the Funders Collaborative website.

VIBRANT TRANSIT-ORIENTED PLACES

$100,000 was awarded to Enterprise Community Partners to support a three-year Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow at the Central Corridor Design Center.

EFFECTIVE COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION

Nexus Community Partners will receive a $20,000 grant to support the creation of an equity cohort around the 2011 PolicyLink Equity Summit, which will take place November 8-11 in Detroit, Michigan. This year’s summit, “Healthy Communities, Strong Regions, A Properous America”, is the fourth national PolicyLink Summit, bringing together the nation’s equity movement—including advocates, activists, policymakers, foundation officials, and equity leaders—to advance a shared vision for more sustainable and equitable  development with access to jobs, transportation, education, health, and housing for all.
 
In 2011 alone, the Funders Collaborative has made 19 grants worth $1,268,000, bringing the overall total to 56 grants worth $4.4M within four key areas, including Access to Affordable Housing, Strong Local Economy, Vibrant Transit-Oriented Places, and Coordination and Collaboration. For a full list of investments, click here.
 

October 4, 2011 by Funders Collaborative

Encouraged by funders and advocacy partners across the nation, regional collaboratives are actively sharing what they’ve learned as they explore how transit-oriented development along rail corridors can advance access to affordable housing, jobs and other elements of a high quality of life for all residents.
 
In mid-September, a Funders Collaborative-sponsored work group explored whether the Twin Cities region’s current funding approaches are sufficient to support the affordable housing and related TOD development along current and future transit corridors (view Framing Document). This work followed up on a June learning session focused on housing preservation and land acquisitionactivities under way along the Central Corridor.
 
The next day, the Funders Collaborative hosted a learning session that summarized the work group’s discussions and presented two different TOD investment models — from the San Francisco Bay Area Transit Affordable Housing (TOAH) and Denver Metro funds. The learning session provided a preview of key issues, challenges and opportunities involved in considering a new TOD funding structure for the Twin Cities metro region.
 
Both the TOAH and Denver presenters spoke admiringly of the Twin Cities region’s relative riches — a strong philanthropic community, non-profit developer base and high degree of cross-sector collaboration. Their presentations highlighted how TOD investment can take different approaches based on the realities in a given region and foreshadowed some of the challenges the Twin Cities may face.
 
For example, local municipalities in fiscally strapped California are not investors in the TOAH fund, which covers the nine-county Bay Area, but they provide essential zoning, entitlements and other non-financial support for affordable housing. Started as an acquisition fund, TOAH has expanded to include construction financing and longer-term gap financing applied to a broader range of projects, including mixed-income and mixed-use developments with community facilities, child care centers, health clinics, fresh food markets and other neighborhood assets that complement affordable housing.
 
FasTracks — a nearly $7-billion rail system build out in Denver Metro — will place strong development pressures along five new corridors in a relatively short time period. With affordable housing mandates lacking for new construction, relatively few nonprofit developers and existing units for low-income and senior households already in short supply, Denver is focused on preservation and land acquisition ahead of the market. The Denver Metro TOD fund provides a single-borrower revolving line of credit to the Urban Land Conservancy to acquire units and bank land. The City of Denver provides the first layer of loss protection for the fund.
 
These differences between funds help raise two key issues being faced by the Twin Cities work group as it tries to frame a collaborative, region-wide approach to strategic TOD investment.
 
Clarifying outcomes. The first is a question of intent. “What are we trying to achieve?” can have different answers, depending on whether the corridor runs through neighborhoods with existing affordable housing or will serve areas where low-income housing is yet to be built; or whether the populations being served by a project are working families concerned about access to schools and jobs or seniors interested in health care access.
 
Structure for mitigating risk. The second question involves how to structure capital formationwhen fund investors have different goals and are willing to assume varying levels of risk. The public/nonprofit sector pursues mission-related goals and, though it has limited capital, it’s more willing to take risks in order to achieve the outcomes. Private investors want to make money, and care more about risk than specific programs. As one bank participant in the session said, “I can handle long-term, subsidized interest rates. I can’t handle loss.” Protecting senior lenders makes it easier for them to invest in projects that don’t pay high rates of return.
 
However, building in those lender protections makes funds less flexible and more costly to administer than capital pools. Policy tools such as zoning, infrastructure improvements and public agency processes that reduce complexity for private developers can also create a more flexible environment for investment.
 
Before the Twin Cities decides to establish a TOD investment fund, it will have to find its own balance that reflects the region’s riches, realities and risks. A report commissioned by the Family Housing Fund will help stakeholders weigh the many factors involved.  Drawing upon the work group’s discussions, stakeholder interviews and other expertise, the report will present findings and specific recommendations for the Twin Cities region.
 
The Funder’s Collaborative will cover the report here when it is released at the end of October.