Morgan Park housing development secures cleanup grant

KuepersThe St. Louis River corridor will see a $10 million, 67-unit, market-rate rental housing development thanks in part to a contamination cleanup grant.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development announced last week it will award the Duluth Economic Development Authority $654,051 to advance the vision of Kuepers Inc. of Brainerd in constructing nine additional single-family housing units to accompany its two 29-unit buildings in western Duluth.

Kuepers is completing construction on its Grand Avenue Estates project at 9215 Zimmerly Ave., near Stewart Creek on the northern edge of the Morgan Park neighborhood. During the second phase of the project, Kuepers and its environmental consultants encountered diesel range organics stemming from an auto repair service that had occupied the site. The presence of lead was also found in soil there. The cost for remediation was estimated at just over $900,000.

The cleanup grant will ensure the completion of nine additional single-unit townhomes. Kuepers is committed to provide a 25 percent match under the grant program.

The project site is scheduled for cleanup over the spring and summer, with completion of the single-family units by early November. Units are priced at $975 for a single bedroom up to $1,475 for a three-bedroom. The single-unit townhomes would list for $1,795 up to $1,945 for two and three bedrooms, respectively.

Grand Avenue Estates

5 Comments

Paul Lundgren

about 7 years ago

The Duluth News Tribune's coverage of this story landed at the top of the Local News page today.

Smithville or not

You might notice the DNT headline puts the Grand Avenue Estates project in Smithville, and the Perfect Duluth Day headline puts it in Morgan Park. What gives?

PDD's only reference in determining it is in Morgan Park is a roughly decade-old map of Duluth neighborhoods from the city's planning division. In the graphic below, I've cropped the city's map down to the area of interest and added a red arrow to illustrate the location of the housing development.

Smithville or Morgan Park

This doesn't mean PDD is right and the DNT is wrong, however. It just means one map says so.

It's surprising how debatable neighborhood boundaries can actually be. One would think city government would have the firmest grasp on these issues,  but note the warning on the map I use as a reference.

accuracy

To1eight

about 7 years ago

The decade old map your not familiar with doesn't show Lower Smithville.  I'm not sure of the boundary but I'd guess the building is on the Smithville side.

Paul Lundgren

about 7 years ago

That map does show lower Smithville. There is clearly an area, marked by a purple boundary, between Morgan Park and Riverside.

Paul Lundgren

about 7 years ago

It turns out it is possible to search Google Maps for neighborhood boundaries. Google shows the same boundary for Morgan Park as the city's map. 

Map of Morgan Park neighborhood

It's important to note Grand Avenue Estates is being built on a continuation of Zimmerly Avenue, east of Grand Avenue. That part of the road doesn't exist on Google Maps yet ... or probably any map available online. Below is the Google Earth version of the same map.

Earth Map of Morgan Park in Duluth

mnqueenb

about 5 years ago

I just have to say they are ruining the west side of town. I live in Gary and it makes me sick that they screw up road construction ... when they actually do it ... but to put in all these extra housing units? Why? Nobody wants to live in Duluth. The economy is crap ... there are how many college grads who can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment ... but yes, let's add extra housing so it can sit empty or turn into another portion of the "projects." Let's tear down old schools and churches to build new ones. DULUTH IS A TRAVESTY!!! Build sh***y places to live out east where the colleges are ... quit ruining the west side that ya'll cake eaters like to look down upon. I cannot wait for my kids to graduate so I can move out of this hell hole.

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