When developing Spirit on Lake, the need PRG was helping to meet was that of the aging GLBT community. The multifamily affordable housing property on the corner of Lake Street and 13th Avenue in Minneapolis is the first of its kind in the Midwest and only the second in the nation to serve GLBT seniors.

This brick and stucco building is a rental property with income limits that provides safe, comfortable, affordable housing. With 46 units, Spirit on Lake includes public gathering spaces both inside and out, underground parking, a fitness room, and the building also houses Quatrefoil, one of the nation’s only GLBT libraries. Because of its ideal location near Midtown Global Market and other neighborhood amenities, the development is also home to a growing population of Somali families.

The GLBT community in the Twin Cities is the fourth largest per capita in the country and, compared to senior citizens as a whole, GLBT seniors are less wealthy. So affordable housing in Minneapolis for this population is vital.

PRG saw a need and helped to meet it.

But PRG didn’t do this alone. The City of Minneapolis, City Real Estate Advisors, Family Housing Fund, Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation, Hennepin County, Living Table UCC, Metropolitan Council, Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, Minnesota Housing, US Bank, and Twin Cities LISC all contributed to the project and helped make it possible.

Listen to more about Spirit on Lake on the podcast Placemakers from Slate Magazine: The Matriarch of Spirit on Lake