By Dan Netter, Finance & Commerce
Wellington Management has purchased the air rights for a building in the Ventura Village neighborhood of Minneapolis for $1.25 million, according to a certificate of real estate value that was released last week.
The purchase of the air rights will allow for Wellington to own and manage the 83-unit apartment building that will be situated atop a two-story clinic that is being developed by the Native American Community Clinic (NACC).
The new clinic will replace the clinic currently on the property at 1213 E. Franklin Ave., which in a 2023 interview the president of NAAC called a “Frankenstein” of a building. The NACC bought the strip mall on which it was built about two years ago and approached Wellington about a joint venture for a housing project and new clinic, according to David Wellington, who serves as president of Wellington Management.
By purchasing the air rights, Wellington said, the clinic maintains ownership of the land while Wellington owns the massing that is on top of the two stories of the clinic.
The clinic will begin construction this coming week, according to the NACC. When constructed, it will consolidate the operations of four different facilities into one, 30,000-square-foot building for medical, behavioral health, dental and administrative services.
The apartments will have a unit mix of 21 one-bedroom, 42 two-bedroom, 14 three-bedroom and seven four-bedroom units, according to Wellington. Most units, he said, will be affordable to people making 50% of the area median income, though 33 units will be reserved for people making 30% AMI. Twenty units will be reserved for people with disabilities or people who have experienced homelessness and will receive supportive services.
“The clinic has been able to get all their dollars lined up, and they were able to close the project last week,” Wellington told Finance & Commerce on Tuesday. “Now we are slated to financing closing on the housing in early to mid-May. We’ll start construction in that time frame.”
After the apartment construction commences in the early summer, Wellington said, the timeline for completion of the apartments is about 16 months. Frana will be the contractor on the project.
“Projects like these, there’s a lot of positive attributes of it that people can understand immediately when they start reading about it or hearing about it and people want to help,” he said. “We’ve really benefited from folks leaning in and leaning hard to help us get this one across the finish line.”
The clinic and apartments will be located on the American Indian Cultural Corridor, where an array of various Native American service and cultural centers are located, as well as the Little Earth housing project.