Oct. 22--Neighborhood housing, a prospective marina next door to Bayfront Park and Cirrus Aircraft's decision to vacate the former Northwest Airlines maintenance base were all on the docket when the Duluth Economic Development Authority met Wednesday night.

Residential revitalization

The authority unanimously approved plans to spend up to

$3.3 million between now and 2018 to revitalize housing in some of the most distressed parts of the city.

The money will be used by the Housing and Redevelopment Authority to purchase and demolish substandard structures in five neighborhoods: East Hillside, Central Hillside, Lincoln Park, West Duluth and Morgan Park.

The HRA aims to tackle 14 to 16 properties next year and probably about half that number annually going forward. The average cost to buy a property, tear it down and ready the site for future residential development is expected to be about $50,000 per site.

Money for the program will come from already established tax-increment financing districts, with proceeds from property sales to developers rolled back into the program, said Keith Hamre, Duluth's acting planning director.

Bayfront marina?

In anticipation that a marina could be in the works for Bayfront Park, DEDA commissioners authorized staff Wednesday to seek $50,000 in state money to assess known contamination in a couple of adjacent slips.

To tap this money from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, DEDA would need to provide a 25 percent chunk of total project costs, meaning it would need to come up with $16,667.

On the same front, DEDA agreed to chip in another $10,000 to support a $31,750 study of possible designs for a recreational reuse of the same slips at Bayfront. The Minnesota Lake Superior Coastal Resources Grant program is expected to pay the rest of the tab.

Cirrus bails

DEDA members also received an update Wednesday on Cirrus Aircraft's decision to vacate the former Northwest Airlines maintenance base in October, consolidating operations in its two other local facilities.

Duluth's largest manufacturer hasn't paid rent on the building since January, meaning it has racked up $225,000 in unpaid bills.

"We're not releasing Cirrus from its obligations under the lease, and we will continue to work with them," said David Montgomery, Duluth's chief administrative officer. "Clearly they have a serious cash flow problem."

Montgomery said finding a new tenant for the specialized base will be a challenge. Even though Cirrus hadn't been paying the rent lately, the company at least covered the costs of maintenance and utilities for the building. Montgomery said these costs could put up to another $200,000 dent in DEDA's finances by springtime.

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