Build housing Duluthians can afford.
In an April 22, 2026 Duluth News Tribune article, Mayor Reinert said city staff and DEDA are ready and eager to work with a developer who is $856,775 behind on property taxes, has a $1.1 million contractor's lien against the site, was accused of fraud by Fannie Mae, and had another of his Duluth buildings — Endi Plaza — taken into court-ordered receivership. Enough is enough.
Sign our petition to get our land back and build over 50% affordable housing on the site.
Take the land back. Build housing Duluthians can actually afford.
Take the land back through eminent domain. Build approximately 650 homes — single-family, townhomes, condos, and apartments — sized and priced for Duluth families and renters. More than half permanently affordable. Built by Duluth labor. Delivered through a true public-private partnership — the model the City's own Maxfield housing study explicitly recommends for moderate-income housing in Duluth.
Single-family, townhomes, condos, and apartments — the four building types woven together at densities that fit Duluth's traditional hillside neighborhoods, not luxury-tower densities imported from somewhere else.
At least 325 of the homes will stay affordable to working Duluth households for the long term — through community land trust ground leases, deed restrictions, and LIHTC compliance. Affordable and market-rate homes side by side, never segregated.
Land stewarded by the Duluth HRA or DEDA. Parcels developed by mission-driven Minnesota housing partners — One Roof Community Housing, Aeon, CommonBond, Greater Minnesota Housing Fund — under binding long-term affordability covenants on every site. The mistake at Incline Village wasn't private development; it was handing everything to a single out-of-state firm with no affordability obligation.
Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Minnesota Housing programs, federal HOME funds, and Affordable Housing TIF — competitively allocated to mission-driven partners with binding affordability terms. Not $75M handed to one out-of-state firm with zero affordability promises.
The 90% of Duluth for-sale demand the Maxfield study calls for — entry-level and move-up homes priced under $450,000, not the 10% executive sliver that Incline Village exclusively served.
A Project Labor Agreement with Duluth's Building Trades. Prevailing wage and local hire across the full residential build-out. Apprenticeship slots that train the next generation of Duluth tradespeople.
The 80-unit affordable apartment anchor and the income-restricted single-family homes deliver before the market-rate condos — in every phase, in every building type. The deliberate opposite of "build market-rate now, affordable maybe later."
Begin master planning in 2026 alongside the eminent domain action. Phase 1 affordable units open by 2028. Full neighborhood occupied by 2030 — the same year the failed developer would still be litigating with his lenders.
On family-scale lots clustered around shared driveways and small parks — sized like Duluth's traditional hillside neighborhoods. Affordable and market-rate homes side by side on the same blocks. About half permanently affordable through community land trust ground leases, Habitat for Humanity, and deed restrictions.
Townhomes, duplexes, triplexes, and small four-to-six-unit buildings — the missing-middle housing types that work best on this hillside. Mix of CLT for-sale, deed-restricted for-sale, affordable rental, and market-rate, woven through the neighborhood. About 60 percent permanently affordable.
One- and two-bedroom condos in two to four mid-rise buildings — for first-time buyers, young professionals, and downsizing seniors. Each building contains affordable and market-rate units in the same hallway. About half permanently affordable through deed restriction and inclusionary requirements.
Three apartment buildings totaling about 200 homes. One 80-unit building is 100 percent affordable, with senior-designated and supportive-housing units. The other two are mixed-income — about half their homes affordable to working renters at 60 percent of area median income.
The City's own 2025 Maxfield Research housing study identifies need for about 8,700 new homes in Duluth by 2035 — and it is specific about what kind. Our plan above is built directly to those findings. The failed Incline Village plan was not.
Under Minn. Stat. § 117.025, the City may take abandoned property by eminent domain for a public use. The Central site meets every part of the statutory test.
Tax forfeiture would not begin until 2028 at the earliest — three more years of idle hillside. Eminent domain under Chapter 117 is available now.
Take Back Central High is a project of Our Park, Our Vote, a Minnesota not-for-profit organization. Our Park, Our Vote's parallel campaign protects Lester Park Golf Course from private conveyance. The same principle animates both: publicly-built, publicly-owned land should not be handed to private developers without public accountability, public process, and public benefit.
Questions or to get involved: info@takebackcentralhigh.org.