Photo by Michelle Bruch

An 1898 church building at 614 E. 15th St. is now a vacant property.

By Michelle Bruch

An 1898 church building with white columns and local historic designation at 614 E. 15th St. was almost renovated into a performing arts venue.

But neighborhood staff in Elliot Park say those plans fell through and the potential arts tenant moved to New York, leaving the building to fall into disrepair and join the city’s long list of vacant and boarded properties.

The number of vacant and boarded buildings in the city climbed a whopping 77 percent this year over last year. City officials say the trend is mirroring a rising number of foreclosures, and they are looking to spend a multimillion-dollar federal grant on the issue to curb problems that vacant homes create.

At the First Church of Christ Scientist building on 15th Street, for example, 32 people ages 20–44 were cited for trespassing on Nov. 10 at 10:45 p.m.

The National Vacant Properties Campaign reports that in some cities, blocks with boarded buildings see twice the amount of violent crime and three times the number of narcotics-related police calls. The organization also reports that houses within 150 feet of a vacant or abandoned structure can experience a net loss of nearly $8,000 in value.

North Minneapolis has borne the brunt of the foreclosures and vacant homes in the city, and Downtown only has a small handful of vacant buildings — one on the East Bank and three listed in Elliot Park. Downtown has also escaped the worst of the city's foreclosure problem, but two of its neighborhoods were highlighted in a city report as being at risk of more foreclosures and abandonment.

About 22 percent of homes in the Downtown East neighborhood have high-cost loans, according to the city. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) estimates that 5.3 percent of the neighborhood's homes could reach foreclosure in the next 18 months.

The city also reports that 21 percent of homes in part of Elliot Park have high-cost loans, and HUD anticipates a foreclosure problem reaching 5 percent of the neighborhood's housing stock.

The city is accepting $5.6 million from HUD to spend in neighborhoods at risk for more foreclosures, such as the neighborhoods mentioned above.

One of the city's strategies is the demolition of vacant housing. The city is working to demolish at least 50 vacant houses this year, and the city might spend another $1.7 million in federal money to demo 100 more homes in the next five years.

Following demolition, the city would hold the vacant parcels in a land bank for no more than 10 years and then offer them up for development into new housing.

There is currently one Downtown house on the city's list to demolish by the end of the year. The home is located at 816 Park Ave. S., and it stands between a Wells Fargo bank parking lot and an 1886 apartment building.

"If someone had taken care of the building, it would be kind of a cute little anomaly down there, but given the fact that it's almost beyond repair and didn't have any real historical significance, I think the neighborhood felt it has become much more of a problem property," said David Fields, community development coordinator of Elliot Park.

Mayor R.T. Rybak is proposing more than the demolition of problem houses, however.

Another $500,000 in federal funding would go to an affordable housing program that would help people with low incomes move into homes that have gone into foreclosure.

A similar affordability program called Minneapolis Advantage has proven very popular, according to Mark Anderson, the city's senior contract management specialist. Within a few weeks of the program's inception last April, he said, all $500,000 in loan money was gobbled up. Most of the money went to pay closing costs on homes, he said, but the funding also went toward down payments on homes in neighborhoods hard hit by foreclosures. Eighty percent of the applicants that have closed on homes so far are in the heart of North Minneapolis, Anderson said. No Downtown neighborhoods were previously eligible for the program, but the new loans would be offered citywide with priority given to high-risk neighborhoods, including Elliot Park and Downtown East.

Another $1.4 million of the federal money would go to parties who would rehab vacant homes for affordable housing. That prospect is a tough sell to developers that wouldn't see much profit in the bargain, according to the city's multifamily housing manager, but the work would be a huge boon for neighborhoods.

"Instead of having a vacant home sit there that's always under threat of [vandalism] and who knows what, certainly to put it back into production and get someone living there is good for the neighborhood," said Wes Butler. "It's going to be a good program."

The rehab program doesn't apply to commercial properties, so it's not much help to the First Church of Christ Scientist building. Mike Finkelstein of the Ackerberg Group is listing the building for sale at $575,000, and he has seen interest from performing arts groups, nonprofits, sound studios and churches.

"We've had a lot of interest over the last couple of years," he said. "It just requires a very significant renovation, and so it kind of comes down to money."

Reach Michelle Bruch at 436-4372 or mbruch@mnpubs.com

Note: This story has been corrected to say that a performing arts tenant, rather than the owner of the building at 614 E. 15th St., moved to New York.
 

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