Kevin Kortan and Patrick Scully have called Nicollet Island their home for more than two decades. Their walls are adorned with faded family portraits, childhood paintings and decorative masks from global travels. Kortan often teaches yoga in their sunroom, where windows frame the city skyline peeking over the tops of sugar-maple trees.
But lifelong performers Kortan, 63, and Scully, 72, were shocked to learn that their home might be listed for sale by property managers Twin Cities Housing Development Corporation, a nonprofit based in St. Paul, back in April. Like other residents, they received a letter from the property manager reading that it was “beginning to explore the potential sale of the Nicollet Island Historic Homes buildings.”
TCHDC manages six historic Victorian houses on Nicollet Island. Divided into a mix of duplexes and fourplexes, there are 22 rental units total, five of which are for low-income households. The affordable housing units are for people earning 50% or less than the area median income, which was nearly $52,000 for two people in Hennepin County in 2025, according to state reports…