The Sheltering Arms House Has a Buyer!

Top photo from CPED staff report, bottom photo by Jeff Skrenes.

At today's Community Development committee meeting the Minneapolis City Council took an initial step towards approving the sale of 2648 Emerson Avenue North, aka "The Sheltering Arms House" to a Charlie Browning.  Charlie rehabs homes as his profession, and does excellent work.  This is his first venture into north Minneapolis, and I can't welcome him enthusiastically enough.  The proposed rehab work would be to convert the four-unit structure into a spacious duplex, and then resell the property, hopefully to an owner-occupant.  But even as a rental, the quality of work that Mr. Browning does will almost certainly attract good owners and tenants.

A quick primer on The Sheltering Arms House and why it's so important both to the community and to me...

Surface Parking at Penn and 26th? Bad Idea.

The last time the Jordan neighborhood had a presentation at one of our committees regarding the Broadway Flats proposal, we had one area of concern.  There seemed to be an implied quid-pro-quo between the developer and St. Anne's church.  In exchange for the purchase and/or use of properties along Queen north of Broadway, the church would then get to formally convert the land they own on Penn and 26th into surface parking.  (It's been informally used as a parking lot even though it has no pavement or gravel.)

While the opinion wasn't formalized into an organizational position (yet), the general consensus at that housing committee was that we support the Broadway Flats development, but we were much more skeptical about converting the corner of 26th and Penn into permanent surface parking.  Furthermore, from a community standpoint, these were regarded as two completely separate issues.  Broadway Flats doesn't need St. Anne's to have parking in order for their development to proceed, and the St. Anne's parking situation at Penn and 26th would not be impacted by the Broadway Flats proposal.

Earlier this week a letter arrived that demonstrated that the arrangement was no longer implied, but completely formalized.  Lupe Development Partners, the same firm working on Broadway Flats, has submitted a land use application for...