Mayor Frey Last Hope To Stop Housing Provider Sale Delays

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey

Call it TOPA light.

For those who’ve forgotten, TOPA was the Minneapolis City Council’s attempt to give tenants the right of first refusal to buy a multifamily property before an owner could sell it outright to a buyer on the open market. The acronym stood for Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act.

Following the majority of the council voting against it, we thought it was dead.

Years later and amidst the distraction of a presidential election, the council brought it up again; only this time they’re calling it COPA, and acronym for Community Opportunity to Purchase Act. instead of giving tenants the right of first refusal to buy a property, this gives it to community organizations.

And this time, the city passed it.

Intended to preserve the availability of affordable housing, the ordinance requires before offering a building for sale, owners must provide affordable housing developers and those interested in preserving it (Qualified Organizations) with the opportunity to submit a statement of interest and make an offer before the property is made available to others.

Qualified Organizations are required to provide a statement of interest in the building within 7 days of receiving notice. If an owner receives notice of interest, they must provide due diligence information to the QO. For 1-4 unit buildings, the QO would then have 7 days to deliver a continuing statement of interest. The organization would have 14 days from that date to submit an offer. (Timelines are longer for buildings with more units).

The seller may reject the offer, or, offers from Qualified Organizations. However, they must also allow right of first refusal to and QO that has continuing interest in the property, at a price and terms equal to an offer from a third party.

In other words, smaller building owners would be delayed in selling their properties by as many as 30 days. The numbers are even bigger for large building owners.

As of today, the ordinance sits on Mayor Frey’s desk for signature or veto by the end of the week.

Call him. Write him. Tell him what you think.

Maybe it will serve to kill the re-emergence of the TOPA ordinance, which is, believe it or not, threatening to make a comeback.

Update: Mayor Frey did veto the proposal.