(Spirit Lake)– The Spirit Lake City Council this (Tues.) evening adopted a resolution supporting an application to the Iowa Economic Development Authority for Workforce Housing Tax Credits for a major residential development. Robert Smith is with Eagle Construction and Talon Development, based out of Sioux Falls. He says the development consisting of town homes and apartments is being proposed to be built on land currently owned by the Spirit Lake Kiwanis Foundation on the west side of Royal Avenue about 900 feet south of Highways 9 & 71…
“Phase one will have the apartments with 62 units. Within the phase two we’re going to have town homes, three bedroom two and-a-half bath and parking. We’ll also have a phase two which will be all town homes with a community center and a fitness center as well as another seven stall parking garage.”
Smith says construction could start this fall if things go accordingly…
“Once we’re approved by the state, we’ll then come in and do our closing in September and immediately after that we’ll go right into construction. Construction will begin with phase one with the apartments. We’re just going to start with footings and foundations and run all of the footings and foundations first, roll right back in with the framing, do those, come back in, keep our crews moving through close up, dry-in is what they call it in the construction business, the finishes, and then we’ll go to leasing those up. It should take about, to stabilize phase one, about a year. Then from that we’ll go right into phase two which is the town homes.”
Smith adds the project will fulfill a specific niche…
“This is what they call market rate workforce housing. This is more for a, town homes really upscale. We’ll have a management level. The apartments are for the regular worker that wants to have a place to live close to work. There’s a real need for that here according to our market studies, as well as whether than having people drive in from a half hour, they can live and work right in the community that they’re in. And that’s the niche that we like to work in, smaller communities need to have people close by.”
Smith says Eagle Construction and Talon Development have had success with similar projects in a number of other communities and are already known locally for constructing the Tall Grass complex in Spirit Lake…
“Eagle Construction has been around about 20 years. They’ve built all of them. It’s owned also by Talon Development, they’ve been around about eight years. Talon’s done about 27 of these now in the last eight years. Eagle Construction has built all of those plus commercial buildings and other type of warehouse buildings, that type of stuff, so they’ve been around a lot longer.”
Spirit Lake City Administrator Gregg Owens says the project is exciting on two fronts…
“It’s an opportunity for a couple of different things, to address some pressing housing needs in the city of Spirit Lake, and it’s nice that the beneficiary if this comes to pass, is also the Kiwanis Foundation who will have a pretty sizable amount for their efforts on behalf of children in Dickinson county. There’s no better steward of that money and so that’s a secondary benefit but it’s exciting that that’s where the money’s going.”
As of now, Owens says the city has no direct financial involvement in the proposed project…
“The city’s involvement will be, at this point, is to support the application to the Iowa Economic Development Authority for a workforce tax credit for the housing project. They need to see a local match. The scale of this project is approximately $18 million. The city’s local match will be a combination of a $500,000 economic development grant and then a tax abatement which has an estimated value of approximately $394,000.”
Curt Strouth, Executive Director of the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation, says the project helps fulfill a major need that’s been ongoing in the four county area they serve…
“We talk about it all of the time. You know housing is a huge issue for our employers especially as they’re looking at growing and expanding. As we’re going out visiting with them, the top three things we’re hearing is workforce, housing, and child care. And for a community in the corridor region to come out and announce a project of this magnitude is going to be impactful not just for the Spirit Lake community but for those just looking for housing within our corridor region, to be able to facilitate employment. So we’re excited about it. A huge investment by Eagle Construction and Talon who’s got great framework and footwork within our whole region and within northwest Iowa. They do it at a high level and we’re very fortunate to be able to have them invest right here in northwest Iowa and Spirit Lake specifically.”
Smith says the project is contingent upon them being awarded the Workforce Housing Tax Credits.
