The Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority Board (CHEDA) met on Tuesday. In addition to hearing about the downscaled initial size of the Ag Innovation Campus (here), the board also toured Oak Court as part of its discussion on the recently completed plumbing project and an application for bonds to put a new roof on the building.
CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth said all of the work on the multi-million dollar plumbing project is complete. “We’ve done the punch list, finalized the to do (list), and final payments will be made in April and early May, which will wrap up the $2.2 million plumbing project at Oak Court,” said Hoiseth. “We’re happy to see that finish so our tenants can get back to a normal life after a little more than a year of some disruption and movement from apartment to apartment.”
Hoiseth took the board on a tour of the updates, including one of the rooms that needed to be completely remodeled during the upgrades. “We went into Room 103, which is a one-bedroom apartment that’s been completely redone,” said Hoiseth. “All new plumbing, cabinetry, bathroom fixtures, flooring. Everything looks really nice and ready for another tenant. We’re pleased with the outcome of the project and have just been waiting, for now, to be able to advertise and bring in new tenants. Mostly we have openings for efficiency apartments. Those are ones that one person comes in and doesn’t have too many belongings or personal assets. But certainly, a nice space with new appliances, bathrooms, things like that. Looking forward to filling up the apartment building.”
RiverView also has an office at Oak Court, which the board visited. “The board visited with Gladys Bakken, who heads up the RiverView Home Health Care, and she enlightened us to what customized living is at Oak Court,” said Hoiseth. “Really want to thank Gladys and RiverView for their partnership. And the board had a good opportunity to see all the things the tenants are made available to for their assistance.”
Bakken told the board that there are about 14 customized living clients at Oak Court who get assistance with health-related or other support services identified by Polk County. Customized living offers the services needed to maintain independent living.
The next step at Oak Court will be applying for bonds to replace the building’s 30-year-old roof. “Now that the plumbing project is done, there are some GO (General Obligatory) Bonds available,” said Hoiseth. “We’re going to put in an application yet this month, in April, to secure the roof. We put in over a couple of million dollars over the past year or so and want to secure that investment with a new roof. That application will go to Minnesota Housing. Hopefully, they’ll see our application as favorable, and we can get the building secured up on the roof.”
Hoiseth said he believes they can secure the bonds without the maximum 20 percent match approved by the board last month (here). “We will have to provide some leverage,” said Hoiseth. “The board did agree at the meeting last month to allow me up to 20 percent of leverage. I think we’ll be somewhere under that threshold. Looking at the roof project in its totality, we took some core samples and looked at all the tin, rubber, and ballast up there today. It’s a pretty big project, but hopefully, we can get some funding to move that project forward.”
The board also was informed they would likely see a funding request to help with engineering for a child care center in Crookston at their next meeting. “Crookston Little Pirates board is looking at acquiring a building,” said Hoiseth. “They did have a request to the board. I just need more information from them before we bring it forward. And then, try to move ahead to get a child care center established here in Crookston.”
The CHEDA Board had earmarked $50,000 for assisting with developing child care opportunities in Crookston. To date, they’ve provided a $15,000 low-interest loan to Gotta Love Kids in December 2020 (here).
Justin Jerde also received a B3 grant for $4,000 for Jerde Insurance. Jerde had most recently increased his request to $5,000, but the committee recommended $4,000, explained Hoiseth. “The B3 Committee met to talk about the B3 application for Jerde Insurance,” said Hoiseth. “The month prior to that, Justin had put in an application for $4,000, and the follow-up to that he requested $5,000. Essentially, a lot of the same things were asked for only the cost of advertising is, as you know, higher and higher. The committee did see all the boxes were checked off on what the request was. They said let’s pay for the signage work, all of the vitality you see in town. Let’s do $4,000 as was the first request, and then if Justin comes back next year for another B3 grant, he’d be entitled to another $4,000 taking advantage of that $1,000 for being a Crookston high school graduate and UMC graduate.”
The Prairie Skyline Foundation requested additional funding to a loan due September 1, up to the maximum amount of a grant it is receiving (approximately an additional $21,000). The additional funds were for finding a new roofer or mason to tile the roof after the previous sub-contractor dropped out of the project due to COVID-19. After considerable discussion on whether the additional funds would require another extension on the loan term, the board authorized the funding once the quotes and/or bills are submitted to Hoiseth. “Kay Heggie, the chairperson of the Prairie Skyline Foundation, was here and wanted to see the balance of her loan bumped up a bit,” said Hoiseth. “The board considered that and gave me some authorization to do some more investigating and do some due diligence to see if we can’t wrap up that project at the old cathedral building.”
In line with the high rates of construction costs for the Ag Innovation Campus, Hoiseth also shared with the board concerns that construction costs could exceed market costs for the Construction Trades class at Crookston High School next school year. “I wanted to get the board’s feeling as to if we should move forward with a house at this current time,” said Hoiseth. “As we all know, the cost of construction materials is going up and up. We don’t want to do is build a house where we end up somewhere over what the market can bear when you have the finished product. We want to see that market stabilize for the building materials and be cautious as we move forward. There are some other things we could do with the CT class, but I’ll wait until we have a meeting with the school district to see how that pans out.”
Hoiseth told the board that he would be meeting with the Crookston School District and the Northwest Minnesota-HRA, with whom CHEDA partners to generate ideas such as doing a remodel or some other project to limit risk.
