The City's Apartment Complex

Minneapolis has a serious obsessive-compulsive Apartment Complex.

As discussed in the previous post, the City of Minneapolis has been on a toot in remaking the Wedge a neighborhood of high-density, absentee-owned investment properties. Outside the Greenway, the City's favored developers are Drew Levin and Danny Perkins (a.k.a. KLP, Farkas Wagner,
D&D Reality Holdings, DDMZ Real Estate, Lotterman-Madan, 2817 Girard Avenue, Turkey Guys, Renovate to Rent). They have wrecked four older buildings and are about to wreck a fifth for new apartment buildings.
In early March, KLP reduced this house at 2424 Lyndale Avenue South:

to this (remaining leaded windows and all):

 to make way for a building looking something like this:

Even though the old house had been owned by a succession of notable people, including Ralph M Wheelock (Minneapolis Tribune political editorial writer, Secretary to Minnesota Governor Adolph Eberhart, and chairman of the state prison board), the wrecking permit sailed through City government. No historical review, no comment about scale, no notice to surrounding property owners. 

On the 2000 block of Bryant, another proposal by Levin and Perkins to wreck and redevelop also breezed through City Hall.  KLP's proposed 10-unit apartment building at 2008 Bryant was approved by Planning without comment, despite a number of departures from zoning regulations:trash containers allowed on the property line, only two on-site parking spaces, severe reduction of the green space and landscaping next to a driveway, a tight 6' turning radius in a driveway. Variances such as these have been rejected by City planners in other neighborhoods, but in the Wedge anything goes for developers. (See UPDATE at end of post..)

 Many sections of the Zoning Code say, "as determined by Zoning Administrator." If there is a question about compliance for a Wedge project, it is referred to the zoning administration manager for the neighborhood, Jason Wittenberg--and surprise! Jason Wittenberg determines that the project doesn't have to comply. Wittenberg gives projects an easy pass, no matter how far they depart from the zoning code, while in other neighborhoods, they would have been subjected to serious scrutiny and required to comply. How has it come about that in the Wedge development projects sail through City Council and Planning without comment? Let me count the ways: 1. CM Lisa Bender and 2. Jason Wittenberg.

At 2008 Bryant a single family house on a single lot is going to be replaced with a four-story ticky-tacky stucco-panel box covering the entire lot, with only two parking spaces, accessed by a driveway shared with the single-family house next door. To CM Bender and CPED (Planning), as represented by Jason Wittenberg, this box on steroids is appropriate infill development in the North Wedge--whereas in other neighborhoods such as Marcy-Holmes or Linden Hills, it wouldn't have stood a chance of being passed "as is."

Let's look at an even more flagrant departure from zoning compliance: the Graves hotel proposal for the Lake and Emerson intersection just south of the Greenway. Despite being far from complying with existing zoning, the hotel proposal was approved, per usual, with nary a second glance, by Jason Wittenberg. On March 3rd, came the second of the 1-2 developer punch. The City Zoning and Planning Committee, chaired by CM Bender, denied an appeal by a neighbor who challenged the City Planning Commission’s decision to grant the hotel developers a conditional use permit for height, as well as several variances. 

The Graves hotel proposal, as envisioned by the developer.

Ignoring the Small Area Plan for Uptown, zoning, and environmental concerns, the Z&P committee gave the go-ahead for a 6-story, 123-room hotel with no on-site parking on a block surrounded by two-story residences.  Even former Hennepin County Attorney Tom Johnson, who represented the neighbors at the hearing, could not persuade the Z&P committee from approving this Incredible Hulk development in Uptown. If it's in Uptown, if it's in the Wedge, the City wants to keep on biggering and biggering.

"Biggering" by Noot

A list of the donors from the real estate industry and real estate development sector to each Minneapolis City Council member in 2015 is informative. At the top of the list is none other than CM Lisa Bender (Ward 10) with 25 out of 36 contributors from those industries (69.4%)..Second highest percentage of contributors from real estate and development is Kevin Reich (Ward 1) with 10/21 (47.62%), followed by Andrew Johnson (Ward 12) 23/65 (35.38%) and Lisa Goodman (Ward 7) 12/34 (35.29%). Jacob Frey (Ward 3) is fifth, with 67/223 (30.03%).  Seven other council members (Gordon, B. Johnson, Yang, Warsame, Cano, Quincy, Palmisano) list under 20% of their donors from these sectors. (In her report Ward 8 CM Glidden said she took no itemizable donations.) 

A short list of developer-donors to CM Bender:
Dan Oberpriller: CPM Development ($220M development pipeline). Also a principal in Lake & Knox, LLC, which pumped groundwater into Lake Calhoun
Nick & Breana Walton: CPM Development; the other principal in Lake & Knox. (See Dan Oberpriller.)
Michael Lander: Demolished two houses for Motiv apartments on the 2300 block of Colfax.
Richard Pakonen: Per PAK Props website: "real estate investment and development focused on urban and in-fill properties"
Andrew Levin, Daniel Perkins: See above.
*For a compete list of numbers of real estate/developer donors to CMs by ward, click here. 
Perhaps even more interesting is this statistic: 17 of CM Bender's real estate/developer donors contributed to no other council member but Bender in 2015. These donors are putting all their dollars into one council member's basket, Ms. Bender's in the 10th Ward (Wedge, Uptown). Hmm.

CM Lisa Bender, promoter of high-density development in the Wedge, is fond of boasting about her support for affordable housing. The standard definition of "affordable" housing is that it take up no more than 30% of household income. According to MNCompass's most recent figures, the median income for Wedge households is $48k. That means that to be affordable for half of Wedge households, housing should cost no more than $1,200 a month. 35% of Wedge households have a household income of $35,000 or less. Affordable rent for them is $875 or less. How many units are available for family housing in the new Wedge apartment buildings at these rates? Zero.

Meanwhile, in Seattle,as in Minneapolis, the wrecking and gentrification continue.

The City government seems quite excited by the billions of dollars being invested in high-density real estate development in Minneapolis, the vast majority with "unaffordable" rents. The City aims to make way for 50,000 new residents, housing them in these new apartment complexes. In 2014-2015 around 9,000 new "market rate" housing units were added to Minneapolis. Over 20,000 more new units are in the works for the city.

Could there be too many "market rate" or above apartments being constructed in the city? Is this overbuilding going to wind up with some investors losing their shirts? The City Council and the City planning department (CPED), the banks, real estate investors and speculators don't seem to think so--or don't care.  If a development is planned for the Wedge or Uptown, the City is all for it. Anything goes. What, them worry about the billions of dollars in debt being accumulated by banks and investors in this current building boom?

Out of scale, unaffordable, noncompliant with zoning--the apartment building boom rolls through Uptown and the inner Wedge, enabled by CM Lisa Bender and Jason Wittenberg in particular and the City Council and CPED in general. Down with the old, up with the new. Round and round it goes. Where it stops, nobody knows. 
 

Les jeux sont faits.

UPDATE:

The Minneapolis City Planning Commission at its March 28^th meeting approved the Land Use Application, the Site Plan Review, and the process by which the CPC reached its decision.

Minneapolis Neighbors United has filed an appeal to be heard at the Zoning & Planning Committee Meeting,  Thursday, April 21^st. Rm 317 City Hall. 9:30 a.m.

Grounds for the appeal:

 Plans for garbage and recycling storage and removal and snow removal are inadequate.

No landscape buffer at the south lot line and the inclusion of a rooftop deck potentially violate the neighbors' right to quiet enjoyment.

 Incorrect information in the Site Plan Review re: the Uptown Small Area Plan, Historic Preservation, and the Minneapolis City and Metropolitan Council Comprehensive Plans.

 Incomplete Site Plan Review. Methods of Alternative Compliance not provided and relevant public comment not included.

--T.B,  

Don't Mess Around with the Demolition Men

1963-1975: 100+ Wedge houses wrecked for apartment buildings.
1975-2015: 0 Wedge houses wrecked for apartment buildings.
February 2015-February 2016: Wedge houses wrecked for apartment buildings:

2320 Colfax
2316 Colfax
2808 Colfax
2743 Dupont
2809 Girard
2815 Girard
2821 Girard
2424 Lyndale
*2008 Bryant 
*slated for demo soon

Michael Lander and At Home Apartments brought the first two down for what is now Motiv Apartments. But all the rest are the work of Drew Levin and Danny Perkins of KLP Realty (a.k.a. D&D Reality Holdings, DDMZ Real Estate, Lotterman-Madan, 2817 Girard Avenue, Farkas Wagner).

Along with their financial partner, Steven Kalin, Levin and Perkins own dozens of properties in Minneapolis, including 26 in the Wedge:
         1008 W. 26th Street
         2344 Aldrich Ave. S.
         2008, 2113, 2612 Bryant
         2612, 2621, 2808, 2814 Colfax
         2521, 2557, 2612, 2644, 2701, 2725, 2743 Dupont
         2812 Fremont
         2700, 2709, 2715, 2809, 2815, 2821, 2828, 2832 Girard
         2424 Lyndale

Do their names sound familiar? That may be because Drew Levin and Danny Perkins are the stars of HGTV's "Renovate to Rent" series, described on the network website this way: "Real estate agent Drew Levin and his partner, contractor Danny Perkins, have been friends since college and now run a successful renovation business together.  They strategically buy old or foreclosed homes in desirable locations, but rather than flipping them for a quick profit, they Renovate to Rent.  Using specific design plans, they transform these homes to attract top rental dollar.  Even though they’re young, they already own and manage over 70 homes, and the number just keeps growing."

But instead of flipping seven of these "for a quick profit," they are demolishing them and building apartment buildings for even bigger profits.

Last year, KLP wrecked this 1880s duplex at 2743 Dupont:

And replaced it with this four-story thing that towers over its neighbors:

Then they wrecked this bungalow on 2800 block of Girard and the two houses to its north for an apartment building now under construction:

2821 Girard Ave. S. before demo by KLP

The living room of 2821

The new DUMP, er, KLP apartment building on 2800 block of Girard

                                                             Bette Davis comments.
The next wrecking is planned for 2424 Lyndale Ave. S. The replacement appears to be a clone of the 2743 monstrosity.

 2424 Lyndale before demo

UPDATE: 2424 Lyndale being wrecked, March 7, 2016

KLP's most recent project, their second Wedge apartment building, is slated to replace the house at 2008 Bryant Ave. S.  Plans for the new building show a  four-story stucco box containing 10 units with small, cramped rooms, covering most of the lot. Despite the fact that the building will house at least 10 tenants and as many as 20, plans call for only two parking spaces. That's because the orthodoxy of Minneapolis City Planning insists that everyone should be walking, biking, or taking mass transportation, not driving. If you are a tenant with a car, you'll just have to join the melee for spaces out on the streets of the Wedge.
 

Bummer: Your car is wedged in so tight, you can't get your bike onto your car's bike carrier. At 4 p.m. today I walked the 2800 blocks of Fremont and Girard. There was not one open parking space on these blocks.

KLP's demolitions and replacements with new higher-density apartment buildings have been done with the approval of the City of Minneapolis, notably of 10th Ward Council Member Lisa Bender. Again, planning orthodoxy demands that the City provide medium- and high-density housing for the 50,000 new residents it hopes to attract. But for some reason, this high density housing winds up being built in the Wedge by demolishing and rebuilding, rather than on the North Side, where scores of lots remain vacant. And the new Wedge apartment units are far from affordable; instead, the new ones replace ones that did have modest rents.


When will the wrecking end in the Minneapolis? It's hard to say. Perhaps when this fantasy-driven high-density building craze ends in a crash, perhaps when the area zoned for higher density is filled.  What area is this?  Take a look at this zoning map. Any building outside the pale yellow area is potentially in danger. The areas most in danger are the Wedge apex north of 26th Street and the area just north of the Greenway.

Endangered: the remaining houses on the 2700 and 2800 blocks of Girard and other blocks around 28th Street.

For decades the neighborhood association repeatedly petitioned the City to downzone the area north of 26th. It hasn't happened yet, and given the current political climate, certainly won't in the near future. The City wants more young affluent suburbanites and well-to-do retirees and fewer of the motley assortment of renters of modest means.

This afternoon the City Council sent a clear signal to neighborhoods in approving the Graves hotel at Emerson and Lake in Uptown: Whatever developers want, they get. The City has scrapped the Small Area Plan, zoning, and environmental concerns in favor of a development which, at six-stories, is way out of scale with the surrounding houses. It will certainly lower the property values and attractiveness of the houses around it, but who cares? Density is all.

The rising sun illuminates the six-story hotel coming to Emerson and Lake. No traffic, no traffic lights, no nearby buildings, no trash. Just an empty horizon full of promise.

What's your vision for the Wedge and other Minneapolis neighborhoods? If the City and KLP get their way, we'll see more big, chintzy boxes out of scale with the neighborhood and fewer of the old houses that have been the trademark of the Wedge and other Uptown neighborhoods for decades.

        "Tied to the tracks and the train's fast coming
          Strapped to the wing with the engine running
          You say that this wasn't in your plan
          And don't mess around with the demolition man
          Tied to a chair, and the bomb is ticking
          This situation was not of your picking
          You say that this wasn't in your plan
          And don't mess around with the demolition man."
                  --from "Demolition Man" by Sting 1993

First to go down: 2320 Colfax, the Orth House

--T.B.

Zoned Out in Gopher City

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a conference on “Building the Urban Utopia: A Blueprint for the Competitive Global City.” The featured speakers were part of a contingent from Gopher City, MN:  Phillip Space, internationally renowned architect and author of “Den$ity for Dummies,” Gopher City Council Member Malcolm “Mal” Feasants, and city planner Uriah Heep IV.

MAL FEASANTS: I’m delighted to be invited to speak on the wonders of the high-density urban neighborhoods we’re rebuilding in Gopher City. The first step in this process is clearing old buildings, old people, bellyaching minorities, and the financially disadvantaged out of these neighborhoods to make way for new mixed-use commercial buildings and high density housing. It’s easy to do--We just ignore or crush any obstacle that gets in our way, like zoning ordinances or small-area plans. If a developer needs a variance or a zoning change for a new project, we just do it. That’s the beauty of being the government. As chair of the Gopher City Zoning and Planning Committee, I control what goes down and what goes up. The voters gave us a mandate, and we’re doing what’s good for them--even if some of them don’t appreciate it.

URIAH HEEP IV [M.A.,Ph.D. Stalinist Planning and Architecture]: The Gopher City Planning Department is proud to be part of the private-public partnership. We are pleased to assist any and all new development by providing the rationale needed to argue for bypassing regulations. We’re the go-to agency for developers. Who knows the city and its buildings better than we do? Who knows better how to spin the rhetoric, using all the buzzwords: “green”, “transportation nodes”, “bike-friendly”, “affordable”, and so forth? 

 The Chinese know how to do high-density development. Complete government control, planner paradise.“Harmonious Society! Long Live the People!”

PHILLIP SPACE [A.I.A., S.O.B.] May I take a moment to brag about a new project I’m designing, a six-story hotel that developer Hy Density has proposed for Gopher City’s Ro-dense Zone? It’s cheap, it’s right on the bus line, it’s easily accessible to downtown. Who cares if the current zoning doesn’t allow a hotel next to two-story-family housing? Who cares if it doesn’t suit the Ro-dense Zone small-area plan? Who cares if building it requires a conditional use permit and a floor area ratio variance? it’s what the City needs, and Mal, here, knows how to get past these pesky ordinances and get the thing built. We’ll put a bike rack for guests by the lobby entrance. No need for parking spaces. Cars are so 20th-century.

 MAL FEASANTS: One important undertaking we GC CM’s are working on is eliminating every way that citizens can comment on projects. We’re cutting out citizen review boards that allow residents free rein to bitch about what the City is doing or not doing. We still have tiresome hearings which can’t be scrapped--yet. BOR-ING. I would go out of my mind if I didn’t have my smart phone in my lap so I can tweet and look at Facebook posts while these old NIMBYs are cranking away. When they won’t shut up, I just cut the mic. The new Gopher City, love it or leave it. 

Gopher City Council Members at public hearing.

It's essential that we rid our cities of these old knee-jerk jerks who don't appreciate the Brave New World we're fashioning in the old neighborhoods. The time of these superannuated losers has passed and so should they. The new neighborhood belongs to the developers and the young and hip. If someone isn't fit enough to ride a bike or walk to a bus stop, they should be harassed into going somewhere else to die. 

PHILLIP SPACE: Hear, hear, Mal. That reminds me. I must tell you about a brilliant scheme my firm has developed to deal with both senile senior undesirables and our supporters who can't afford the rents in the new buildings. Let me announce the latest in minimalist urban pads: Troll Holes. These young male internet trolls don't have jobs, don't have friends, and don't have lives, so they don't need all the amenities required of hipsterdom. They live online. So we've designed small, windowless one-room underground units with high-speed internet access, so they can spend all their time launching anonymous attacks on the recalcitrant NIMBYs who are such a thorn in the side of the City and developers. The City can subsidize  rents in these Holes, for these young wits are providing an important service to local government. 

We've already cleared the neighborhood of annoying minorities who are always protesting for some lame reason or the other. In the big scheme of building the great metropolis, their lives certainly don't matter. And the poor? They're already on the streets or out in suburban ghettoes. Everyone else can pay up or move out.

 A-hole online in a Troll Hole

URIAH HEEP IV: Great plan, Phil! Now, I’d like to congratulate Minneapolis on the fine job the government has done in converting antiquated cow-town Uptown into a wonder of urban planning. Uptown is very much like our awesomely hip Ro-dense Zone. Thirty years ago we threw out all the bozo small businesses there.  We used tax increment financing and got subsidies by selling the Feds on how the area was blighted. Man, what suckers! It’s taken 30 years, but now we have exactly what we wanted: a place for hipsters, yuppies, bros and suburbanites to party till they puke.

PHILLIP SPACE: Well, friends, it's been fun, but we gotta run. I need to check out several building sites to be bulldozed, and I trust that Mal and Uriah here will keep up the good work running interference for us architects and our developer employers. [Applause]  And remember, as a famous German once said, "The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."

                 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
                                             Praise be to Nero's Neptune.
                                             The Titanic sails at dawn.
                                              Everybody's shouting,
                                              'Which side are you on?'
                                                      --Bob Dylan, "Desolation Row"  1965

                                                   
                             With a tip of the hat to Harry Sinclair Lewis of Gopher Prairie, MN.                                                   

--T.B.