Duluth Developer To Transform Downtown Building Into Workforce Housing

DULUTH, Minn. – New workforce housing is coming to a prominent location in downtown Duluth.  But it won’t be in the form of a new building.

Duluth-based Titanium Partners will soon be transforming the historic Ordean Building across from Maurices on West Superior Street into 35 new apartments, according to Brian Forcier, owner of Titanium Partners.

The units will be on the top five floors. The bottom two floors will be commercial. And the Ordean Plaza next door will be transformed into what Forcier calls an Instagram worthy sport for locals and visitor to enjoy and feel a better sense of community.

“We are the first of many projects, most likely, where you see office to multi-family conversions. You’re seeing it across the country, quite frankly. Covid changed the way we act and the way we live,” Forcier said at a news conference Thursday. “The hope is that it revitalizes and rehashes – if you look back at old pictures of downtown — the vibrancy of it, and that’s what we’re trying to do here. And I hope that others take note in the downtown and follow suit.”

The new re-use housing announcement comes just days after an independent downtown Duluth housing study was released.  The report showed Duluth is well positioned to support up to 2,500 new units of housing downtown within five years by reusing existing real estate that’s vacant.

The city’s new planning and economic development director, Chad Ronchetti, said getting more people living downtown is his top priority.

“A downtown is a heart of a community and it is impossible for a community to function without its heart. And so, we need a strong healthy heart, and it’s projects like this that make that happen,” Ronchetti said.

Forcier said all tenants in the building have found new places to do business, and only a few remain to get to those new places.

The president of Downtown Duluth, Kristi Stokes, said this latest housing project is crucial to creating a stronger neighborhood feeling downtown.

“I look forward to welcoming those new residents into our downtown and really getting to know them and make this their neighborhood. Because that’s what it’s all about — making people see this is a neighborhood. They play a role in making it better, making it stronger, making it more vibrant and making it safer,” Stokes said.

Titanium Partners expects to start work on the building next spring.

It is a privately funded development.

Mayor Emily Larson said this project will add new revenue to the tax base because the Ordean Building was previously operated as a non-profit.