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Deadline Nears For HGTV Star To Renovate North Minneapolis Home

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The city of Minneapolis is in the final stretch of dealings with an HGTV star's company.

The city sued Nicole Curtis' company, Detroit Renovations, over a property in the 1500 hundred block of Hillside Avenue North that she failed to renovate. The city has high hopes for the property.

The house at 1522 Hillside Avenue North has been vacant for close to 10 years.

Four years ago, the city of Minneapolis sold the house to HGTV star Nicole Curtis. Her reality show features Curtis buying and restoring homes that are dilapidated.

"1522 is a house that Nicole Curtis bought in 2013 for $2 from the city of Minneapolis," Blong Yang of Ward 5 said.

The house sits in Minneapolis City Councilman Blong Yang's Ward 5. Yang says Curtis failed to restore the broken down property, forcing the city to sue her.

"The agreement says she has an allotted amount of time six months to get this done. She needed to put $150,000 of construction cost and she needed to sign a quick claim deed to us that if she didn't perform, we can take the house," said Yang.

That deadline is today, Oct. 15. But according to Yang, it's a soft deadline.

He says according to the agreement, Curtis has a 60-day cure period, so the city can't act until...

"December 15, in terms of us being able to record that quick claim and take the house," Yang said.

"We had hope but we continue to be let down," said Aimee Lundberg.

Lundberg says neighbors are furious that nothing has been done to restore the home.

"This property has continued to be a thorn. It's a danger, it's a hazard to the kids in the neighborhood and it continues to just be an eye sore," Lundberg said.

If Curtis continues to do nothing, Yang says he has hopes someone else can come along and make this blight right.

"We would basically market it through our vacant house program and allow for anybody to take a stab at it," Yang said.

Neighbors say they want Curtis to take responsibility for not keeping her promise to north Minneapolis.

"I just really at this point want her to be honest with the lack of her commitment to us and to community and what she says she was going to do and just has not done," Lundberg said.

Yang says Curtis must also put down a $150,000 deposit for construction cost. He says he has not heard from Curtis or a representative from her company in quite some time.

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