West Fargo based APG Development has submitted to the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) and the City of Crookston applications and requests for the development of a multi-family apartment complex along North Broadway. Both CHEDA and the Crookston Planning Commission will be discussing the apartment complex in their meetings on Tuesday, July 16.
CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth said the CHEDA Board discussed the potential sale of the property between Casey’s General Store and the North Broadway Apartments in June and will have a public discussion on Tuesday morning. “The CHEDA Board had a closed meeting about a month ago and discussed the property south of Casey’s, north of the North Broadway Apartments,” said Hoiseth. “It appears like there is a developer from Fargo that would like to build a multi-family unit complex there. They have made an application for a variance to try to maximize that space.”
The Planning Commission will then discuss a variance request at their meeting Tuesday night if the development clears the CHEDA board. “On the CHEDA Board agenda for Tuesday we will briefly discuss this development,” said Hoiseth. “Again, we discussed this at a closed session, now at the open meeting, we’ll discuss the property being sold to the developer. And then later that evening, the planning commission will discuss the variance request.”
The variance request would include a reduction of the west property line setback from 25-feet to 20-feet for apartment porches (balconies), and an east property line setback reduction from 35-feet to 10-feet to accommodate apartment garages. “There is a couple of different things that go on with the variance request,” said Hoiseth. “Again, on Tuesday night, the planning commission will deal with that. Essentially you have a 25-foot “set back from Broadway. The building itself will be setback [25 feet], but the balconies on the second and third floor into that 25-foot setback. And then maximizing the space to the east if it is available.”
The site plan appears to show two apartment buildings, along with 68 two-car garages and six single car stalls. “Of course, there are always design changes that could be there,” said Hoiseth. “But the first unit would go up north and south running parallel to North Broadway. Then there could be a potential second one if all goes well. Normally these multi-family units if you don’t get it into the 30-35 or more range it’s very tough to get cash flow from them. So you can anticipate maybe something similar to what the Meadows did there behind Drafts in terms of appearance and size.”
According to Hoiseth that one of the principals in APG is from Crookston originally, interested in investing in his hometown. “APG is a couple of guys, and they work very hard at this stuff,” said Hoiseth. “This is their first venture into a multi-use, I believe. And one of the principals in that group has local ties, is actually from Crookston originally. So, excited to see folks wanting to invest in their hometown.
