The developer selected to build a parking garage with retail and housing next to St. Cloud’s City Hall is planning to start construction in early 2027 and has committed to making half of the 150 apartments affordable.
Atlantic Housing Partners Principal Scott Culp told members of the City Council that the tax credits for the affordable housing would be necessary to make the $60+ million financially feasible. His company was selected last year through a competitive bid to partner with the city on the City Center project, which will increase the number of public parking spaces on the lot from 75 to 250.
Culp provided an update last week to the council, acting as the Community Redevelopment Area board, and said he would request formal approval of the master plan in July, which is necessary to apply for site development permits. He said the design is similar to what was presented a year ago during the selection process, but the number of apartments, located in two separate 4-story buildings, was reduced from 168 to 150.
The affordable housing units would have rent restrictions in place for low-income and very-low-income residents. The other 75 units would be for “missing middle” renters earning up to 120% of the area median income.
Building 1 would be attached to the garage and stretch from 8th Street to 10th Street. It would have 114 apartments and 7,628 square feet of ground-floor commercial space.
Building 2 would occupy a full block just south of City Hall. It would have 36 units, half of which would be studios, and just over 10,000 square feet of commercial.
“Hopefully, you’d have restaurants, ice cream shops, delis, those types of things,” he said. “And those would be conducive to having pedestrian activity on the streetfront. And again, three stories of apartments above that.”
The garage would have 542 parking spaces, and the two apartment buildings would have a combined 17,643 square feet of retail and commercial space on the ground floor.
“We had to make some changes to the concept plan, but we ended up with a plan that was very similar to what we had originally submitted,” Culp said.
The city is providing the land and has earmarked $6.25 million toward the project. Culp said he would need an additional $460,000 as a local match for the Low Income Housing Tax Credits, but if the city provides the local match, AHP would not be able to claim exemptions on its property taxes. In addition, AHP would absorb any cost overages related to the utility and stormwater improvements needed to serve the project, now estimated at $1 million.
Culp said he plans to build the parking garage first and have it completed within six months. “The garage goes really fast,” he said. “We want to get it complete and ready for occupancy so that both our construction group and your employees can be using the garage while we’re building on the rest of the site.”
The rest of the project should be completed within 24 months, he said.
Mayor Chris Robertson pointed out one thing missing on the plan that was in the original proposal: the catwalk from the garage to City Hall for employees. Culp said it was removed, but the alley between the garage and City Hall would be converted to one-way to increase pedestrian safety. But Robertson wanted it restored.
“I really think it’s important to have that,” the mayor said.
Councilman Ken Gilbert said he was happy with the now 24-month timeline. “I think we’re on track,” he said. “We don’t want to get in your way; we want to be your partner. I speak as a CRA board member, we want to be side-by-side with you. We’re so excited about this project to see it come to fruition.”
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