The Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) met Tuesday morning at the Valley Technology Park. The CHEDA board approved two loans and discussed several other things, the highlights are below.
Real Good Bath and Body Loan request–
The board passed the consent agenda and moved on to the main agenda where the first topic was a presentation from Carol and Matt Simmons (pictured right), owners of Real Good Bath and Body, located in the old Prescription Shoppe building. The Simmons’ are both employed at the University of Minnesota Crookston and recently won the IDEA competition and are currently renting the space and are looking at purchasing the old Berry Burst building in downtown Crookston. Simmons said the first floor would be a retail and manufacturing space for their business. The space would also allow local artisans to sell their work and a place for creative classes. The second floor of the building has three apartments and they would renovate the floor and make three nice apartments and rent them out. Matt Simmons said the apartments aren’t currently livable and would have to be gutted out and he said they would make nicer apartments as he sees a need for them in downtown.
Real Good Bath and Body is soap business and they have two distinct customer bases in the Grand Forks and Fargo areas and in Beijing and Shanghai. The board approved a loan of $75,000 for 15 years at a rate of 4.25 percent. Crookston City Councilman Steve Erickson said he approved the loan and would like to see it looked at in five years and made a motion for approval. CHEDA Board member Craig Morgan seconded the motion and the board gave unanimous approval. “It is really a fantastic business. They are selling soap abroad and elsewhere and what we are trying to do is locate them in another building in town and it looks like they have a deal kind of formatted to move into the old Berry Burst site, next to Widman’s Candy. It is really exciting for the City of Crookston,” said CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth. “The board approved a loan of up to $75,000 for 15 years and we will be working in conjunction with their primary lender and we are thrilled for Carol and her business in downtown Crookston.”
Mark Dietz/Humanity Earth Loan request-
The second loan request was from Mark Dietz for a $40,000 rehab housing loan. Dietz, an employee of Polk County,
purchased a dilapidated building at 409 Houston Avenue (pictured to the right) in Crookston and is looking to use the rehab funds to make utility and energy improvements and provide a new home for a family in need. Crookston Mayor Wayne Melbye said they like the idea of fixing up the home to bring kids to the school, workforce in the community and to help people. Dietz has identified a family and lined them up with financial services. It was pointed out that if he wouldn’t have purchased the building, it would have likely been demolished. “Mark has done something called Humanity Earth and has taken an old house on Houston Street which has kind of been an eyesore for a long time and we thought it was destined to be demolished, but Mark had a vision and thought he would buy the house and renovate it and provide it to an underserved client that could assume a mortgage,” said Hoiseth. “He has worked on gutting it out and making a nice compliment to the addition in that area and what we hope to partner with Mark on an ongoing basis and do more of these housing projects and it seemed to fit well with our current housing and rehab program.”
The loan was approved for $40,000 for one year with a two percent interest rate.
Oak Court Apartment Plumbing –
The CHEDA Board discussed the Publicly Owned Housing Program. In May, CHEDA was the recipient of a $1.3 million dollar grant to redo all the plumbing at Oak Court apartments. “We are going to start with that project and do a request for proposals for an A and E firm and we are going to leverage that with some other reserves that we got,” said Hoiseth. “In the next year and a half, we will see a lot of activity with contractors in the Oak Court facility.”
While the work is being done to replace the plumbing in the apartments, CHEDA will have to look at relocating the residents. “It is unfortunate that every room needs to have this, and people need to be out of their apartment when the work is going on so we will have some displacement, whether they move to another vacant apartment or if they are able to go into a motel for a month or so. It is very needed, and the plumbing is in disrepair, but we were fortunate to get the grant from Minnesota Housing.”
Audit and Stipend increase–
The board was told the 2017 audit by Brady Martz and Associates came back and it was a good clean audit. “We had a clean year, no findings whatsoever,” said Hoiseth. “We look forward to working on our budget and the board did some discussion on requesting a stipend and we will do some massaging of the budget over the next couple of months.”
Construction Trades House–
The CHEDA board also discussed the partnership they have with the Crookston School District and the Construction Trades class house project. The two entities have worked together for several years and the Crookston High School Construction Trades Class, taught by Travis Oliver, has built a home in partnership with CHEDA. This year, Oliver is finishing up his teaching licensure and needs to student teach during the second semester so the class won’t be available to build a house at that time. They are looking at having a smaller floor plan on a lot on Hoven Lane and try to get concrete laid and rafters up before school starts and have the class have the house buttoned up before Christmas. “Travis Oliver has done a fantastic job with the students and we are close to finishing the house on Barrette and Eickhof and we will be building on the third lot on Hoven Lane and taking a little bit of a smaller footprint, one that will complement the neighborhood,” said Hoiseth. “We will let him take charge in the first semester and hopefully by Christmas or New Years, they will have it all buttoned up and we can bring in general contractors to finish it. It is a great program and we are looking forward to working with the school district again.”
