ACO: Heritage and Housing - Learning From Leijona

Join ACO Toronto for its launch event on all things heritage and housing!

ACO Toronto’s annual heritage symposium will take place in Fall 2023 and focus on Heritage and Housing. Leading up the symposium, ACO Toronto is offering free talks and resources related to this theme. Please join us for our first guest lecture in this series with Meghan Elliott who will share insights from the recently completed conversion of the historic St Louis County Jail in Duluth, Minnesota into 33 units of mixed-income housing.

Like many jails, the former St. Louis County Jail in Duluth is a challenging building type to reuse: it has many small cells that make up the structural system, it was stripped for demolition, and it has been vacant for over 15 years. In addition, financing complex reuse projects is challenging and generally involves multiple funding sources, including historic tax credits, tax increment financing, and grants.

“This building was built almost 100 years ago to inspire civic engagement through exceptional architecture. The materials, including granite from Stearns County and 280 tons of steel, held up well over time despite years of neglect, allowing us to repurpose it for the most unique apartments in Duluth – creating jobs, supporting environmental sustainability, and retaining heritage.” – Meghan Elliott

Meghan Elliott has dedicated her career to historic building redevelopment. She is Principal, Founder, and CEO of Jillpine, New History, and RevitalizeMN. Jillpine is a real estate development company for high-potential historic properties. New History is a Minnesota-based consulting practice that she started in 2011. New History works with clients throughout the Upper Midwest of the US, including regional and national real estate developers, cities, counties, architecture firms, and educational institutions, among others, to increase the use of historic buildings and sites. The integrated team includes historians, licensed design professionals, and project planners for historic building redevelopment – all with a depth of experience in the regulatory, financial, and physical framework of historic preservation. Finally, Meghan co-founded RevitalizeMN in 2020 to advocate for the extension of the Minnesota state historic tax credit, and to bring awareness to the important role of building reuse for economic development, sustainability, housing, and heritage.