The Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) brought the board, city council, Crookston Chamber of Commerce, and other interested parties on a tour of housing options in Crookston after their meeting on Tuesday morning.
One of the stops was at the Agassiz Townhomes on the north end of Crookston. The tour was led by Jason Carlson, Tri-Valley Opportunity Council CEO, who showed off a two room and a three-room townhome. Carlson said the townhomes are well built. “We are really proud of it. We feel this will be a wonderful addition to the community, utilizing that brownfield site first and foremost is going to be a big deal and the quality of units we are bringing online is going to be a benefit to the community,” said Carlson. “We are held to some very high standards with the framing, insulating, and air sealing which demonstrate how well built these buildings will be when they are complete.”
Two of the townhome buildings are up with work being done on the inside while the framing of a third building is currently being worked on. “When the foundation is complete (on the third building), they will move to the south side of the property and build three more buildings which will generally be the same orientation with smaller buildings close to the middle of the property and a larger on the south end of the property line,” said Carlson.
There will be 18 three-bedroom units at 1,568 square feet and 12 two-bedroom units at 1,322 square feet with attached garages. “There will be at least a half-bath on the main floor of all the units, a full bath upstairs,” said Carlson. “All of the units will have heating and cooling and everything a family would need.”
The estimated rent for the two bed room townhomes is $680 per month with an estimated utilities cost of $110 per month. The three-bed room rent will be $745 with estimated utilities at $131 per month. “This absolutely was targeted to the lower income workforce, that is why there are so many three bedroom and two-bedroom units. There isn’t a single bedroom or studio units,” said Carlson. “We are hoping families that work in town will choose this new development and have children for the school district and make their home in Crookston.”
They are hoping to start leasing units on the north-end of the property sometime in August or September and the rest of the units in October. The project was made possible by the work of many entities working together. “It has been a wonderful partnership between the city and CHEDA and a lot of local employers that contributed and Tri-Valley and I am going to preach about that until the folks are tired of hearing from me,” said Carlson. “It is a community project and I was very happy to show off some tangible progress. We all have different resources we can bring to the table and work to combine those resources, we can do a lot more together than we can individually.” (Photos courtesy of KROX Radio)