By Frank Jossi
Gary Stenson has always had a keen interest in historic real estate. After earning his law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1969, Stenson joined the staff of then-Sen. Walter Mondale as a legislative assistant. He worked in the areas of housing, community development, and helped Minnesota communities with issues or requests involving HUD and other federal agencies. Upon returning to the Twin Cities in 1973, Stenson practiced law assisting clients and communities in developing projects that required multiple levels of private and public assistance. The experience whetted his appetite for historic real estate.
In 1978, the historic Great Northern Hotel in Stenson’s hometown of Devils Lake, North Dakota was tax-forfeited. Stenson acquired the hotel and spent two years convincing the Farmers Home Administration in Washington DC that they could finance the adaptive reuse of a historic building into 38 affordable senior apartments with commercial space on the ground floor.
“I saw that I could either be a lawyer or a developer, and I chose to be a developer,” he said, and he ended his career in law.
The success of the Great Northern generated interest in adaptive reuse of old hotels, schools and hospitals from communities in a dozen states. To take advantage of these inquiries. Stenson founded MetroPlains, a for-profit development firm with Lawrence W Olson, a CPA, and LaVerne Hanson, an architect. In the 40 years that followed, MetroPlains helped place more than 50 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in nine Midwest states, many serving income-qualified residents and senior citizens.
Stenson’s favorite project is in downtown Wichita, KS, where MetroPlains restored the 1886 Eaton Hotel and six additional historic buildings in 2000 into 115 market rate and affordable housing units. This development, now known as Eaton Place, also added 30,000 square feet of commercial space.
The famed PBS newscaster Jim Lehrer, a Wichita native, came to speak at Eaton’s two-day grand opening. “I still remember all the excitement in the city when it opened,” Stenson said.
In the 1990s Stenson joined the board of Rethos when it was known as the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. A vibrant board of preservation aficionados raised enough money to hire an executive director and lease an office, both firsts for the then-all-volunteer organization.
“We moved the organization forward and put it on stronger footing,” he said.
His career taught him the importance of understanding the many details of federal, state and local government programs. Paying attention to the demands of lenders remains a key to success.
“I tell younger developers to have patience and perseverance when working with financial institutions and government agencies to meet all their requirements,” he said.
Challenges today exist when competing for limited funding sources. Stenson believes that the federal government should increase low-income housing tax credits to help developers construct more affordable housing, as it did during the pandemic. “That move could build a lot of affordable housing,” he said.
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