Construction at troubled St. Paul apartment could signal shift for beleaguered neighborhood

Construction has started on the renovation of a St. Paul apartment building that was notorious for drug use and trespassers, a hopeful sign in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood that has been hard-hit by vacant buildings, drug use and homelessness.

Kimball Court, a supportive housing building for people trying to break out of homelessness, was a focus of neighborhood worries about those quality-of-life issues, especially after the building was overwhelmed by trespassers and break-ins in 2022 and saw hundreds of police calls. But with the start of renovations and the addition, there are glimmers of hope.

The building is getting bigger, expanding from 76 to 98 units. And things are turning around at Kimball Court, said one resident who did not wish to identify himself as he sat on the stoop on a recent evening with a security guard peering down from a second-story window.

“Things are getting better,” the resident said, before ducking back inside the heavy glass door.

Kimball Court has been owned by Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative since 2010 as supportive housing, a first step toward housing for people who have been chronically homeless.

But the building became the focus of worry around the intersection of Snelling and University avenues as abandoned buildings and drug use rose between the nearby Green Line station, vacant storefronts and the empty lots around Allianz Field. People repeatedly broke into Kimball Court.

Private security is on site around the clock now, and renovation work is visible from the street. The vacant building next door, the former Star Market, has been demolished.

In its place is the foundation for an addition to Kimball Court that will hold more apartments, offices for service providers, and community spaces. Gone is the dirty green-striped awning that shaded the building’s front stoop. Sections of light tan brick have been removed for repair to the walls.

Chris LaTondresse, executive director of Beacon Interfaith, said the aim is not just to make Kimball Court bigger, but to bring it up to the standard set by newer supportive housing buildings, such as the 48-unit Bimosedaa apartments that Beacon runs just off Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, in partnership with Avivo, which provides on-site services for residents.

From the outside, Bimosedaa could be mistaken for another high-end apartment complex in a renovated warehouse, with big windows and a light-filled look. Inside, residents who have recently moved from encampments and emergency shelters live in small studio apartments of their own, and have on-site services like medical care and group therapy. The Minneapolis building also employs security around the clock.

Kimball Court was originally built as a hotel almost 100 years ago, LaTondresse said, and using the building for supportive housing has always been a challenge.

With new property management and security, LaTondresse said Beacon has been working to make Kimball Court work better over the last two years.

For Kimball Court’s Midway neighbors, LaTondresse said, it may feel like a supportive housing building brings some unsavory characters. Some have worried that adding 22 more apartments to a troubled building will amplify problems around drug use in the neighborhood.

“Housing first is a model that is about expanding access and reducing barriers,” LaTrondresse said. So the issues that contributed to someone becoming homeless — like substance use and mental health trouble — are still present when they move into supportive housing.

But supportive housing helps people stabilize their lives, LaTondresse said. Even in Kimball Court, he said, about 60% of the people who moved out of the building in 2024 were moving into permanent housing, and 70% of residents have been in housing for a year or more.

”Despite challenges at Kimball Court, even in its current configuration, that’s something we’ve been able to achieve,“ LaTondresse said. ”A renovated, expanded Kimball Court allows us to improve upon that."

The renovations will also add community space, private meeting rooms for residents to meet with case workers and other helpers. A new lobby with a staffed front desk will help control access to the building.

Many of Kimball Court’s issues stemmed from how “porous” the building was, letting in unwanted visitors, said Jamey Flannery of Flannery Construction, the St. Paul firm running the renovations.

The expansion comes as the Twin Cities deals with a shortage of supportive housing, an intermediate step of apartments with on-site health care services and case management. That shortage is making it harder for people to make the leap from chronic homelessness to stable housing.

A Ramsey County analysis shows that supportive housing is a significant bottleneck in the east metro’s housing infrastructure with average waits of more than seven months.

The Midway has had a difficult half-decade, Flannery said. The United Village development planned around Allianz Field was stalled for years, leaving empty space. The major intersection of Snelling and University avenues feels emptier than before the pandemic, with a vacant CVS Pharmacy and an empty lot where a bank once stood.

But Flannery said she sees projects like the Kimball Court renovation, and renovation of other nearby long-vacant buildings, including a new office for African Economic Development Solutions, as antidotes to some of the persistent issues in the area.