Renters on Nicollet Island in Minneapolis, some of whom have lived in their Victorian-era homes for more than 40 years, are racing to pool enough money to buy the six historic buildings they call home before an outside buyer beats them to it. Their landlord announced plans in April to sell all six properties, and tenants fear an outside buyer could offer as much as $20 million and push them out.
A Cooperative Forms to Fight Displacement
The renters started meeting weekly in the spring and formally incorporated as the Nicollet Island Cooperative in July, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. The cooperative includes both renters and neighboring homeowners on the island, and it is now assembling a competitive bid for all six buildings while seeking assistance from Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the same nonprofit that helped finance a similar tenant purchase in Minneapolis back in 2019. Ian Simpson, who has rented one of the units since 2016, said potential buyers could offer $20 million and displace residents, per the same account.
The six buildings sit on the north side of Nicollet Island and were built in the late 1800s. Together they hold 22 mixed-income households, including five income-restricted units that cannot be rented to anyone earning more than 50% of the area median income — $52,600 for a two-person household. Residents told the paper that rents across the buildings range from $937 to $1,964 a month, and the tenants themselves include artists, service workers and retirees.
A Landlord Realigning Its Portfolio
The buildings are owned by Twin Cities Housing Development Corporation, which has a 1,140-unit portfolio, according to the Star Tribune. The organization’s portfolio is roughly 70 percent project-based Section 8 family housing, and executive director Amanda Novak said the nonprofit is realigning toward that kind of income-restricted housing, framing the sale as a mission decision. TCHDC declined to renew the cooperative’s last lease in 2013, and the Nicollet Island homes grew less affordable as Low-Income Housing Tax Credit requirements phased out over time, the Star Tribune reported.
TCHDC is asking about $500,000 for each property and may sell the buildings individually or as a bundle, according to the same report. Buyers are not required to maintain the properties as affordable housing, and TCHDC has said it is considering all potential bids, though renters have asked it to give their offer first consideration. Terry Tauger, president of the Nicollet Island Cooperative, said the city has a moral and financial obligation to transfer the property to residents, and he hopes local government will enforce contract provisions favoring the cooperative — pointing to 1980s ground leases that cite maintaining affordability for mixed-income residents as an original intent.
Public Land, Private Homes, and a Tangled History
The land beneath the homes complicates any sale. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board owns the ground under private residences across Nicollet Island, a structure the city arranged through a long-term ground lease worked out in the 1980s after purchasing the buildings in the 1980s when they needed restoration, per the Star Tribune’s reporting. Most of the island was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 as part of the Saint Anthony Falls Historic District, according to the City of Minneapolis. The Cultural Landscape Foundation says land was transferred to the Park Board in 1978 and that most of the island’s land is Park Board-owned and leased…