Twin Cities suburbs facing pressure to build apartments focus on senior housing

Suburbs across the Twin Cities have approved thousands of new apartments in recent years — something regional planners see as a key to solving the metro area’s affordable housing crunch.

But many of those new apartments and condos were only available for senior citizens, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune analysis of data compiled by the Metropolitan Council. In some cities, including Arden Hills and Excelsior, all or nearly all of the apartments built between 2009 and 2023 were designed for people age 55 or older.

The influx of senior living facilities across the metro area, some earmarked as affordable and others not, came as baby boomers aged and the government offered incentives for developers looking to cater to their evolving needs. But it also reflects the reality that, in communities where officials faced pressure to increase their housing density, some neighbors said they’d prefer to live near retirees.

“Senior housing has long been the ‘acceptable’ version of affordable housing,” Ed Goetz, the director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, said in an email. “Given the basic level of opposition to affordable housing, the fact that a development is limited to seniors dramatically increases the likelihood of approval.”

The Met Council has been pushing suburbs to increase their density as a way to add affordable housing and maximize efficiency of utilities, like sewer and water.

But it doesn’t tell cities how to meet those goals or how much new housing should cater to senior citizens versus younger residents. And developers and government agencies sometimes view seniors, who may be downsizing, as a safer financial bet, as well.

Anne Mavity, the executive director of the Minnesota Housing Partnership, said the cities need affordable senior housing, but they need housing for younger people, too.

“I always say, we need more housing of every kind in every corner of the state,” she said.

The Star Tribune’s analysis focused on permits approved for multifamily housing projects with five or more units. Nearly 90% of the 527 units of multifamily housing approved in Arden Hills between 2009 and 2023 were in projects catering to senior citizens.

When Trident Development proposed building market-rate apartments on an unused church property in Arden Hills in 2021, more than two dozen residents showed up to a meeting — and some asked why they weren’t focusing on senior housing instead.

“I am not convinced that this will be anything other than low income … Wait a few years when this property degrades and people see the problems with living here!” one resident wrote on a comment card, according to a summary of the meeting the developer provided to the city.

Trident Development changed the project, which was recently approved as a 55+ community.

Representatives for the St. Cloud-based company didn’t respond to an interview request.

Planning Commissioner Brad Bjorklund argued the project should include affordable units to match city goals that call for more diversity in housing, for all ages.

“It’s a fact that people that work in our city can’t afford to live in our city, and we’re way behind the affordable housing efforts in our adjacent communities of New Brighton, Shoreview, Roseville and other ones to the south,” he said.

Arden Hills City Administrator Jessica Jagoe said the new senior housing allows aging residents to stay in the community.

Mayor David Grant noted that the city’s main parcel available for development, the former Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plan, includes plans for multifamily housing.

“You don’t find a lot of development — other than TCAAP,” he said, the plans for which include multifamily housing.

In some suburbs, such as Anoka, a combination of market headwinds, government incentives and public pushes for owner-occupied housing — instead of rentals — contributed to an influx of new projects focusing on seniors.

City officials approved permits for eight new multifamily housing projects between 2009 and 2023. Together, those projects included nearly 500 housing units, 82% of which were earmarked for senior citizens.

Among them was the American Cooperative, a complex next to the Green Haven Golf Course that included 87 condos, which sold for between $125,000 and $225,000.

Mick Conlan, president of Gramercy Development Companies, said he began work on the project after seeing “the city had been looking for senior ownership,” the type of project that also qualified for some federal assistance to help offset the costs. Some seniors have also accumulated enough wealth to make them less risky clients.

“You’re dealing with folks that have equity to purchase a share or money to pay their rent in the future,” Conlan said.

Anoka Mayor Erik Skogquist said he didn’t remember any conversations focused specifically on whether the city should try to attract senior citizens versus younger residents, but the influx in senior housing projects came amid a push to support more owner-occupied housing.

“You’re trying to get a little bit of a mix and a balance of the housing styles and options,” Skogquist said, noting that the city’s housing stock is now almost evenly split between rentals and owner-occupied homes.

Some developers and city officials say their approach is shifting.

Excelsior approved just one multifamily housing project between 2009 and 2023: The Waters of Excelsior, which offers a mixture of independent living, assisted living and memory care programs.

Assisted living complexes appealed to some developers before the COVID-19 pandemic because the construction costs were comparable to other projects, but the facilities presented opportunities to bring in extra revenue as residents pay for dining or caregiving services.

But providing care services has become more complex, said Kyle Didier, a founding member of Waters Senior Living, and updated building codes have driven up some costs for senior complexes. So some developers are now focusing on different types of projects.

When developers pitched the Waters of Excelsior, the city “didn’t have anything that really addressed that assisted living, memory care need,” City Manager Kristi Luger said.

Luger said in more recent years, which fell outside the Star Tribune’s analysis, the city has tried to encourage multigenerational housing projects in hopes of keeping more residents in town year-round. She noted that some businesses have reported seeing a drop in visitors in the winter months.

She said the city has approved one project and another is slated to come before the City Council this summer.

“Our goal is to have housing from birth to death,” Luger said.