Project officials broke ground at the future site of the Wilderness Escape apartments last week, launching construction on Ely’s first multifamily housing development in almost two decades.
State legislators, project coordinators and local leadership gathered for the commemoration of the upcoming $9.2 million project, which will include 37 housing units and 22 attached garage stalls.
Wilderness Escape will offer a variety of studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units, complete with private decks, in-unit laundry and a community room and patio for residents.
The project is set for completion in spring or early summer of 2027. Site preparation began last fall.
The City of Ely donated the site, which previously served as a gravel pit and offers on-site fill material, to the Ely Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA), who will own the apartment complex once completed. HRA will also manage the rental process.
“With today’s interest rates and project costs, housing in greater Minnesota has never been so challenging,” said Skip Duchesneau of D.W. Jones, the project’s development agency. “Finding a way to fill funding gaps is critical to the project moving forward or not.”
The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) donated $4.5 million after a grant application submitted to the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) for the same amount fell through in 2024.
MHFA later provided a $1.5 million three-year forgivable loan through the agency’s Workforce Housing Development “It is a significant investment, but we know this housing is needed,” said IRRRB commissioner Ida Rukavina.
Rukavina said the development has “truly been a team effort” and has drawn support across agencies and the aisle.
State Sen. Grant Hauschild (DFL-Hermantown) said it is “unheard of” for an issue to gain as much support “across the board” as housing has drawn, both nationally and statewide.
“All of us got together and said housing is number one. Let’s just concentrate on housing,” said State Rep. Roger Skraba (R-Ely). “We have. This is a culmination.”
Skraba serves on the Housing Finance and Policy Committee in the Minnesota House, while Hauschild chief-authored legislation this spring to address workforce housing demands in Greater Minnesota.
Hauschild said that 20-30 years ago, most people never anticipated that housing would become the top issue that it has become today.
Now with Ely’s population beginning to perk up again, said Hauschild, which he attributes in part to the community’s commitment to projects like Wilderness Escape and others, housing is more important than ever.
Council member Al Forsman spoke of the increased demand on Ely’s housing supply since Covid for those wishing to live locally and work remotely, as well as the resulting impacts on the area’s economy created by limited housing availability.
“Workforce housing in Ely has been a hurdle preventing our small businesses from reaching their full potential for the last six years,” Forsman said.
A housing study conducted for the City of Ely by Maxfield Research and Consulting, LLC, in 2023 reported that younger age cohorts make up the highest proportion of renters in the region. The study projected a 13% increase in residents aged 35 to 44 before 2028.
Updates to the study in February 2024 found just one vacant unit of affordable rental housing in the market area, with many market rate and affordable properties maintaining lengthy wait lists.
The study reported a trend in which homes that go up on the market frequently are purchased as vacation properties or by short-term rental investors, rather than by local workforce-aged residents.
“This is going to help us attract the workforce of the future, for the hospital, for our mines, for our tourism industry, for all of the critical things we have in Ely and on the Iron Range,” Hauschild said.
Wilderness Escape represents Ely’s first public housing project since the construction of the Northwoods Townhomes on Washington Street in 2007, which serve the area’s population aged 55 and older.
The City of Ely also recently received IRRRB investments in the historic depot-to-brewery conversion project, the newly-built Ely Regional Trailhead and last summer’s Harvey Street road and underground infrastructure improvements.
“All those projects and many others have enhanced Ely for residents, business owners, and tourists, and we are very honored to support that funding for those projects,” said Rukavina. “They’re transformative, building a stronger and more resilient future for Ely.”
Hauschild lauded local officials for prioritizing new developments.
“We have a really special community here in Ely, and it shows with projects like this,” Hauschild said.
