The North Bay Business Journal is happy to announce that Dutton Flats Apartments has been selected as one of the North Bay's Top Projects of 2021.

Watch the Dutton Flats project come to life in this time-lapse video from Precision General Commercial Contractors. Dutton Flats is a 5-story, new construction project in Santa Rosa with 41 units ready for occupancy in 2021.

How does a landlocked, fully developed city like St. Paul, Minn., prepare to accommodate a growing population? St. Paul's strategy is to increase densities on infill parcels as they become available for redevelopment and to enhance transit options for new developments. The capital city released an economic development plan predicting that while a few large infill sites will be redeveloped over the next 20 years, much of St. Paul's growth will come from increasing density on smaller infill parcels. This presents an opportunity for housing developers that are experienced in acquisition and rehabilitation.

Operating under the title Rice Street Partners, Phoenix Development Company of Minneapolis and nonprofit partner Community Housing Development Corporation are pleased to announce that they have closed financing and commenced construction on 41 units of affordable family housing in Saint Paul’s North End Neighborhood. The project, known as Rice Street Flats, carries a general price tag of $14 million, will consist of 20 three-bedroom, 12 two-bedroom and 9 one-bedroom apartments in a four-story building located at 800 Rice Street.

Phoenix Development Company, along with its developer partner, Irvine-based Integrity Housing, are pleased to announce that they have closed financing and commenced construction on Dutton Flats Apartments, located at 214 West 3rd Street in Santa Rosa, CA. This once vacant lot will become home to a 41-unit affordable, multifamily complex designed to serve low-income families with children. Dutton Flats will provide high-quality affordable housing in an urban, infill location, benefiting future residents, the community, and the company's investors.

Berkadia’s Affordable Housing team is pleased to announce the investment of $12.3 million in Dutton Flats, a 100% affordable development in Santa Rosa, California. These units will help to provide safe, stable, affordable housing to an area that was severely impacted by the wildfires. Thank you to our partners Integrity Housing, Phoenix Development Company of Minneapolis, Housing Authority of the City of Santa Rosa, Exchange Bank and The City of Santa Rosa.

Developers are moving forward with two affordable housing development on St. Paul’s East Side and in the North End.

Operating under the title Rice Street Partners, Phoenix Development and nonprofit partner Preservation Housing Trust plan 41 units of affordable family housing on vacant city land at 782-796 Rice St. The Rice Street Flats, which carries a general price tag of $14 million, will consist of 20 three-bedroom, 12 two-bedroom and 9 one-bedroom apartments in a four-story building off Sycamore Street.

Developer Loren Brueggemann has both new and renewed affordable housing in the pipeline for north-central St. Paul.

Brueggemann, a principal with Santa Rosa, California-based Phoenix Development, has worked on a number of Twin Cities affordable projects, including the Greenway Heights Family Housing in Minneapolis. His latest project, which goes before St. Paul’s Zoning Committee this Thursday, is a proposed 41-unit apartment building at 782 to 804 Rice St. The project, known as Rice Street Flats, will be built on a vacant site currently owned by the city Housing and Redevelopment Authority between Lyton Place and Sycamore Street, a block west of Lyton Park.

Principal at the Phoenix Development Company, Loren Brueggemann, speaks to the affordable housing development project his company is building at the corner of 3rd Street and Dutton Avenue in Santa Rosa, the support the company has received from the City of Santa Rosa, what the neighbors are saying about the new development, who will be eligible for these units when they become available, and what the next step is in the development.

A new housing project in west central Santa Rosa that promises to provide dozens of affordable apartments is taking shape on a busy corner just north of Highway 12 best known as a Christmas tree lot.

Plans call for a 41-unit, five-story apartment building branded Dutton Flats on the corner of West Third Street and Dutton Avenue. All of the units would be limited to tenants earning between up to 30 to up to 60 percent of the area’s median income, about $84,000 for family of four.

There was a time when farmworker housing was a shack provided by an employer with no insulation, no plumbing and no electricity. People were separated from their families, coming to the U.S. to work the fields then send money home to their families. Long hours in the hot sun, no health care, no benefits and less than humane conditions were the norm.

Some aspects of the above story are still true. Housing is no longer supplied by employers.   The difference is that many people now live in an apartment or rental house, pooling their money to afford rent. It’s better, but less than most of us would tolerate, and certainly not healthy conditions for raising children.

It took more than a decade and the help of 11 major funders, but the affordable Greenway Heights Family Housing building designed for large families is up and running.

The 42-unit building at 2845 Bloomington Ave. S. is in Minneapolis’ East Phillips neighborhood, an ethnically diverse area with immigrants from Nepal, Somalia and Ethiopia, and significant Latino and Asian populations. The building was fully occupied immediately after opening in January, signaling that its larger units are in demand in the area.