Garner considers $1.2M, 10-unit apartment development | Mason City & North Iowa

GARNER | The Garner City Council is hoping a new 10-unit apartment project will reduce the gap in the city’s housing market.

At its Tuesday, Aug. 22, meeting, the council will consider accepting a proposal received from Echo Development Group of Cedar Falls earlier this month for the construction and operation of a $1.2 million 10-unit apartment building at 895 W. Eighth St. in Garner earlier this month.

“We’re excited about it,” said Randy Lansing, Garner city administrator.

According to Echo Development Group’s proposal, the building will feature four three-bedroom apartments and six two-bedroom apartments. Each apartment will have a garage, a laundry room and 2½ bathrooms.

The proposal, which was submitted during the city’s request for proposals period between June 15 and Aug. 3, was the only one it received, despite its incentives to attract developers.

In June, the city of Garner began searching for “an experienced multi-family housing developer or operator” to partner with the city for the construction of an eight to 12 unit residential apartment building and an equal number of parking garages on a 24,024-square-foot residential lot.

The request came after Maxfield Research & Consulting of Golden Valley, Minnesota, completed a rental market assessment in September 2016 that concluded — with little to no surprise to the city — that Garner was in need of more rental housing. The assessment showed the city could easily build 60 additional rental units and fill them almost immediately, Lansing said.

“We don’t have enough plain and simple,” he said.

To attract developers, the city of Garner is offering the land and water and sewer connections at no expense. It also will incur the engineering and construction costs to build the required on-site storm water retention facilities for the property as well as reimburse the developer 50 percent of its property taxes on the new apartment building and related taxable facilities over a 10-year period.

“We thought it was a pretty good deal,” Lansing said, adding it was done to catch the attention of developers unfamiliar with the city.

Rent for the apartments, he said, would likely cost between $900 and $1,200.

At the Garner City Council’s Aug. 8 meeting, the council didn’t accept Echo Development Group’s proposal because there were some concerns with whether there was enough room on the site for the required storm water retention.

“We’re just kind of waiting to hear back from the city engineer about the storm water retention,” Lansing said.

He said the city council will likely accept Echo Development Group’s proposal at its Aug. 22 meeting and work with them to resolve any concerns.