The Duluth Economic Development Authority approved a resolution Wednesday authorizing city staff to seek up to a $478,000 redevelopment grant for the former St. Louis County Jail property, 521 W. Second St., from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
The owner of the property, Blue Limit LLC, seeks to develop 32 units of rental housing in the building. If the grant proves successful, DEDA would be expected to match the grant with local funds, dollar for dollar.
Blue Limit already has secured historic housing tax credits for the project that are set to expire in June, adding urgency to the grant application, said Chris Fleege, director of Duluth's planning and economic development division.
Any project would still be contingent upon approval by the Duluth City Council, but the redevelopment agreement would include an affordable housing provision that at least 10% of the units be reserved for households earning no more than 60% of the area median income.
Hale noted that plans for the former jail building, also known as the Burnham Building, have gone through multiple iterations over the past decade.
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"It's a beautiful historic building, but it's very complicated, largely because there are steel-structured jail cells incorporated into the building, and it turns out that's not an easy thing to change," he said.
Although previous attempts to fund the project have fallen short, Hale said: "So far, in the iterations I have seen, this seems the most promising project. It's just again a complicated site, but we're hopeful this time we can make something happen there."
