The Heights: Co-Creating a Saint Paul Housing Legacy for Generations

(l-r) Cecile Bedor, Meredyth Skemp, and Kristine Williams represent three organizations who collaborated to create a large affordable housing community in Saint Paul. (Photo Sarah Whiting)

On Saint Paul’s Greater East Side, along the Maplewood border, a once-quiet stretch of rolling fairways is being transformed into something far more dynamic. The 112-acre site of the former Hillcrest Golf Course, once contaminated with mercury-based fungicides from decades of use, is now the site of one of the city’s most ambitious redevelopment efforts: The Heights.

The golf course itself carries a meaningful legacy. Built in 1921 by members of Saint Paul’s Jewish community, Hillcrest was founded during a time when Jewish residents were excluded from joining golf and country clubs. For nearly a century, it stood as a symbol of perseverance and self-determination within a community that built its own place.

Two years after the golf course closed in 2017, the Saint Paul Port Authority purchased the property. Now, a new inclusive space is opening up there. The Heights will have 147 mid-density homes and 853 rental units, blending sustainable industry, affordable housing, and community-driven design — and a new model for how public, private, and nonprofit sectors can work together to reshape a neighborhood’s future without losing its identity.

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From Contamination to Opportunity

When the City of Saint Paul first began discussing what could replace the shuttered golf course, the task seemed daunting. Kristine Williams, chief development officer of Saint Paul Port Authority, says the Port Authority and the city knew the area had an acute housing shortage. The Heights was envisioned as an opportunity to address that.

The mercury contamination, a common legacy of mid-century lawn maintenance practices, required extensive soil removal and remediation. The Port Authority specializes in redeveloping brownfield sites and saw potential. “It’s important to know this is the first time in the Port Authority’s history that we’ve been able to create 50 net new acres of light-industrial property within the city,” Williams says. “It’s a big deal to take what was not industrial before and create new industrial spaces that wouldn’t have otherwise been available.”

She adds: “Diversity in housing means not just for different income levels, but also for different age groups, for all age groups, and recognizing what’s appropriate for this community.”

The space is expected to generate about $5 million in annual tax revenue. Remaining acreage is being developed for housing, green space, and public art rooted in the voices of East Side residents who helped shape the plan through community meetings and design workshops. “Our goal as a Port Authority is for these homes to be affordable for the residents of the East Side and the community that helped us shape the vision of The Heights,” Williams says. 

To bring the housing component to life, the Port Authority turned to Sherman Associates, a Minneapolis-based developer with a long record of mixed-income projects; JO Companies, a Twin Cities–based, mission-driven real estate developer focused on commercial and residential spaces that enable communities to thrive; and Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, known for helping families build and buy homes through equitable ownership models. Together, they are creating a mix of rental and ownership opportunities intended to serve a wide spectrum of residents.

Meredyth Skemp, a developer with Sherman Associates, notes that the project has required deep collaboration among developers and community partners to ensure homes are financially attainable for East Side families. She explains that affordable housing is generally defined, in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program, as 60 percent AMI and below — meaning that 50 percent of the rental housing is affordable to households with an aggregate gross income at or below 60 percent of the Area Median Income.Yet in this case, the affordability is deeper for a portion of the units.“Ten percent of the units across the whole site would be affordable to that extremely low income — 30 percent AMI and below. That was our goal going into it, and we have maintained that,” she explains. 

Other units will serve households earning up to 80 percent of AMI, enabling the integration of all income levels in a shared community.

Sherman’s portion of the housing includes a variety of apartment types — workforce, affordable, and market-rate units — as well as retail and community amenities that will knit the development into the fabric of existing neighborhoods.

Building for Equity

The Heights has gained national attention as a Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project site, part of Habitat for Humanity’s global initiative inspired by the Carters’ longtime advocacy for affordable housing and community building. Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity Chief Real Estate Officer Cecile Bedor says 147 home ownership units will be available, to help families who work in Saint Paul put down roots with stable long-term housing.

“We don’t [usually] have access to this kind of land to build this many houses at the same time,” Bedor says. “The opportunity was there to  expand home ownership, all at one time, and in a way that would really invite funders.” 

She says Habitat raised over $10 million for the project, combining $5.3 million in cash, $4.8 million in donated materials, and the labor contributions of 1,839 individual volunteers from 38 states.

Habitat recruited 69 homeowners to volunteer and share their stories. “We had 15 elected officials — from federal, state, county, and city,” Bedor says. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Keeping energy costs low is part of what makes housing affordable. Bedor says the project includes features such as a district geothermal energy system, aquifer thermal energy storage, and all-electric buildings, which will reduce carbon emissions and energy use. The design is intended to lead to predictable and affordable energy costs.

Through Habitat’s model, qualified families will purchase homes with affordable mortgages and build equity over time, while ongoing affordability restrictions ensure the homes remain accessible to future buyers. The project features multigenerational and accessible designs to meet diverse needs of the East Side community.

Bike trails, native plantings, stormwater systems, and public art will weave throughout the site, creating open, walkable spaces and environmental sustainability. This design has earned the project a LEED Platinum certification — the highest standard for green development — with the distinction of being the second Platinum-certified community in the United States.

The Heights’ new five-acre city park, which will be named by the community, will anchor the development and feature native plantings, public art, and a trail system that connects to regional bike paths. 

The site’s new industrial spaces are intended to bring living-wage employment to the East Side, reducing commuting burdens and reinforcing the link between home, work, and community. Metro Transit was engaged early to ensure bus routes and connections align with needs. Saint Paul Public Schools are assessing how enrollment may shift as new families move in.

The Good News

The first Habitat homeowners closed on mortgages in November, with the remaining residents moving in starting in mid-2026. 

Back on the East Side, longtime residents are watching the transformation of the ghost of the old Hillcrest Golf Course giving way to a new landscape — one that reflects the people who live there and the possibilities they’ve imagined together.

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