Listen to this articleDeveloper JB Vang Partners is still two years away from construction of the $60 million East End Apartments at the former Hamm’s Brewery complex in St. Paul, but key pieces of the funding puzzle could fall into place soon with help from the city and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.
St. Paul city staff is asking the St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority to approve a $4 million loan and $700,000 in land “write-down” assistance for the five-story East End Apartments, which would bring 120 units of affordable housing to a portion of the former Hamm’s Brewery at 680 Minnehaha Ave.
The requests are up for approval at the July 10 HRA meeting.
East End Apartments is part of a larger project that includes redevelopment of city-owned, unused portions of the former brewery, a historically significant complex that dates to the 1800s and once had bragging rights as the flagship of the fifth-largest brewing company in the U.S.
The overall project, a mix of new construction and adaptive reuse, includes 209 affordable housing units, according to the city. Also planned are 56,000 square feet of commercial space and public gathering areas, as previously reported.
In December 2022, the city selected JB Vang Partners Inc. to redevelop the site. Finance & Commerce reached out to JB Vang for comment.
The HRA approvals are needed for JB Vang to be competitive in its application for a nearly $15 million deferred loan from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, Crystal King, a spokesperson for St. Paul Planning and Economic Development, said in an email. The deadline for the MHFA application is July 11.
Marie Franchett, a project manager with St. Paul Planning and Economic Development, said at Wednesday’s HRA meeting that the MHFA is running a “very competitive process” for funding this year.
“There’s less funding and they’re requiring this year that we provide a City Council or an HRA resolution about a funding commitment reservation for the project in order to make it competitive,” Franchett said at Wednesday’s HRA meeting. “[The resolutions] will earn them funding commitment points … in the RFP process for MHFA.”
Franchett said the MHFA awards are generally announced toward the end of the year. If MHFA funding comes through, next steps would include final underwriting, HRA approvals of financing terms and the land sale, and issuance of low-income housing tax credit bonds.
“It also takes a fair amount of time to close once you get your MHFA award, so we anticipate construction starting spring to summer of 2026,” said Franchett, who added that both projects — the East End Apartments and the historic rehab — would close at the same time.
Nicolle Goodman, director of St. Paul Planning and Economic Development, said the city wants to avoid a scenario where the new construction happens and the redevelopment never moves forward.
“The new construction, that’s the easy part, right? It’s hard to finance and it’s expensive, but it’s a piece of land that you can build on. The redevelopment is harder in many ways. It’s more complicated. It’s an adaptive reuse. … So we’re just tracking those two projects at the same time to make sure they’re both moving forward.”
The city funding requests are related to the apartment component of the complex, according to a city staff report. The apartments will be affordable for households ranging from 30% of the area’s median income to 60% AMI. The developer is also proposing six townhomes and structured parking, which will be financed separately.
Other key funding sources identified in city documents include $24.1 million in federal tax credits and a $9.67 million mortgage, along with smaller awards from Ramsey County and the Metropolitan Council. The $700,000 award from the city would reduce the land cost to $300,000.
Goodman said the project will be “catalytic” and “transformative” for the area. Historic rehab projects of this magnitude are expensive and complicated, but the development team is tapping into a lot of funding sources to make it happen, she said.
“When you hear about all the funding that we’re leveraging — new market tax credits, low-income housing tax credits, potentially historic tax credits — it’s a hard project, but it’s also one that qualifies for all the help,” Goodman said. “It’s going to be hard, it’s going to take some time, but it’ll be transformative.”
City Council members, acting in their capacity as the HRA, spoke highly of the project.
“I know we’re all committed to making it a reality. It is going to be a really special example of just taking an area in a space that is disinvested in, and just helping … to create a walkable campus with a lot of uses on it. I get excited by the vision,” Council President Mitra Jalali said.
