98 jail cells reinvented as much-needed housing
"New History was instrumental in navigating the construction challenges of a complex building while meeting historic tax credit design requirements for a project that had been dismissed as impossible."
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Duluth, MN
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Meghan Elliott (Jillpine) with Jon Commers and Grant Carlson
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1924, 1980
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2018-2023
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Project planning and strategy, historic tax credit certification, design guidance​
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$11 million
35,000 sq. ft. (33 units of housing)
Long-vacant and hard-to-reuse buildings can be successfully converted into housing with Minnesota state and federal historic tax credits.​
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CHALLENGE
Like many jails, the former Saint Louis County jail in Duluth is an extremely challenging building type to reuse: it had many small steel jail cells that didn’t have windows – and the cells themselves hold up the structure. In addition, the large financing gap required layering multiple funding sources.
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SUCCESS
New History collaborated with the design team at LHB to find creative design solutions to create 33
residential units in the former jail. The structure and mechanical systems were re-imagined to cleverly configure the historic mechanical chase into a central corridor. New History completed a preliminary determination with the National Park Service in order to bring confidence to the historic tax credit approvals. This project provides unique and much-needed additional housing units in a formerly blighted building.
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