Laserfiche WebLink
News, Analysis and Commentary On Affordable Housing, Community D <br />Published by Novogradac & Company LLP <br />March 2011, Volume II, Issue III <br />Developer Begins Makeover of Largest Affordable <br />Housing Development in Minnesota <br />By Jennifer Dockery, Assignment Editor, Novogradac & Company LLP <br />R iverside Plaza Apartments’ colorful exterior repre <br />- <br />sents a colorful past. The apartment complex was the <br />- <br />ban Development (HUD) revitalization program known as <br />New Town-In Town, which planned to create a 12,000-unit <br />mixed-income “utopian village” in Minneapolis, Minn.’s <br />home of Mary Tyler Moore’s character in later seasons of <br />The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Yet, within a few years of its <br />1973 completion, the development had fallen on hard times. <br />HUD had scrapped the New Town plan. The development <br />faced water shutoffs, rent strikes and mortgage defaults. In <br />1988, Sherman Associates and others used the nascent low- <br />income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program to acquire the <br />development. Twenty-three years later, Riverside Plaza is <br />poised for a comeback. Sherman Associates will use an al <br />- <br />location of LIHTCs, along with state and federal historic tax <br />credits (HTCs), tax-exempt bonds (TEBs), a HUD loan and <br />- <br />lion makeover of the 1,303-unit development. <br />Photo: Courtesy of Sherman Associates <br />A Storied History <br />Riverside Plaza Apartments, originally called Cedar Square West, <br />was built in the 1970s as part of the U.S. Department of Housing <br />Architect Ralph Rapson designed Riverside Plaza, originally <br />Urban Development’s New Town-In Town initiative. <br />called Cedar Square West, in the Brutalist style, which was <br />popular from the 1950s through the mid-1970s. Since acquirchoice vouchers. The campus includes a K-8 charter school, <br />- <br />ing the 11 buildings, Sherman Associates has improved the grocery store and tenant resource center that provides social <br />buildings, increasing the number of elevators in the 12- to services to more than 400 individuals each month. Many <br />40-story highrises and installing life safety features, such tenants attend the adjacent University of Minnesota or have <br />as sprinklers. At present, Riverside Plaza houses more than recently arrived from Somalia. <br />4,400 people in mixed-income units; the development has <br />A Gargantuan Task <br />669 project-based Section 8 units and 634 market rate units. <br />Many residents of the market rate units also receive housing According to George Sherman, principal and founder of <br />continued on page 2 <br />COMPANY PROFILE: Public Profile <br /> <br />