$500M housing project at site of former Duluth high school in the works

Duluth officials are considering a housing project at the former site of Duluth Central High School in one of the city’s biggest housing proposals to date.

As initially reported by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS’ sister station WDIO, the $500 million housing project called The Incline Village would bring 1,300 housing units to Duluth as a part of a three-phase plan, according to Jeff Schiltz, one of the principals representing ICS, the housing company.

“The Incline Village will literally be a new neighborhood in Duluth. Right here on top of the hill and have its own retail and own amenities,” Schiltz said. “The developer already has us in design of the first building. It will be a condominium building, which would be sitting right over my shoulder.”

“That building would begin construction here this summer,” Schiltz added. “We expect families moving into that building starting in the summer or fall of 2025”.

While the first phase of the building project is housing, the second phase would include adding 30,000 feet of retail space, and the third phase would add an additional 220 apartment units or a senior housing building to replace the old building on the property, according to Schiltz.

The Duluth Economic Development Authority has already signed off on the proposal for building the housing units. However, Arik Forsman says it still has to get through City Council for approval.

“Developing a site of this size is a very complicated endeavor,” Forsman said. “I know that it’s taken a long time to get to this point. I just have to give so much credit to our city staff. Putting us in a position to take what is currently a large vacant space and potentially turn it into one of our gems in the city.”

Forsman added that the Incline Village housing project proposal will be a costly project.

The next city council meeting is on Monday, February 12th. Council members will hear the project proposal and determine whether or not the Incline Village project will move forward, according to WDIO.

For more information about ICS you can read more here.