The Heights housing project is expected to create up to 1,000 new housing units on the old Hillcrest Golf Course.
St. Paul leaders recently shared new details about what they are calling the city’s “largest modern-day investment” in redevelopment, a project that promises to bring 1,000 new housing units and jobs to the Greater East Side by 2030.
About 50 people gathered at the Saint Paul Port Authority on Tuesday as Minneapolis-based Sherman Associates was announced as the lead housing developer for the project, called “The Heights.” Sherman Associates is partnering with JO Companies and Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity to build new housing units at an estimated cost of $400 million. About two-thirds of the units will be classified as affordable housing, according to developers.
The Heights is located on the 112-acre former Hillcrest Golf Course at the corner of Larpenteur Avenue and McKnight Road. Twenty-four acres will be set aside for housing and 54 acres will be set aside for businesses. Other land will be reserved for a park and “passive open space,” among other uses.
Most of the $50.5 million* funding for the project’s public infrastructure, such as roads, a park, and environmental cleanup, among other costs, is secured. The hope is that another $13 million will be awarded through a state bonding bill to pay for additional infrastructure expenses.
“Folks ask me all the time, ‘Mayor, what’s your vision for St. Paul?’ And in one word, I was given the same answer. And the answer is irrelevant,” Mayor Melvin Carter said at Tuesday’s news conference. “What’s relevant is when our children, and their children—when it comes time for them to decide where they want to plant their family, where they want to keep their business—what will they be looking for? I think they’ll be looking for The Heights.”
