By Robert Williams

Editor

The Frazee City Council held a special meeting on Tuesday, May 26, to discuss a potential apartment building next to Dollar General with Turnkey Solutions & Development Vice President Jason Francis.

“Basically, we’re just getting started on it with some concept drawings to see what we can put together with that site,” Francis said.

Francis presented a preliminary drawing of a 36-unit complex with underground parking and noted his designers are working on two other concepts, including an L-shaped building and one with separate garages rather than underground parking and another with a pole-type building for parking.

“I just want to see cost differences between the two building types,” he said. “Underground is going to be more.”

That total has not been worked out yet, but would include an elevator.

“Ultimately, what’s the best fit for the area,” said Francis. “The goal is to be around 32-36 units. That rally is the ticket that I’m finding makes these things pencil and feasible. That’s the real number we have to stick to.”

Planning also is stressing more two and three-bedroom units.

“I think that’s a better fit for this area,” said Francis. “Similar to what we did in Barnesville.”

Francis did not have an exact number for the particular drawing but said, “Give or take…” there would be 18 two-bedrooms, seven three-bedrooms and the balance (seven or nine) would be one-bedrooms.

“It just all depends on the size of the building we’re able to put in there,” said Francis.

Full schematic designs are expected no sooner than mid-June and 2-3 weeks after that to complete financial computations to provide “hard numbers” with the schematics.

Once evaluations are completed the city and Turnkey will discuss how to proceed with construction. In recent developments in Lake Park and Barnesville, Tax Increment Financing (TIF) was used.

TIF is a public economic development tool used by local governments to fund infrastructure, redevelopment, and housing projects.

According to the Minnesota Office of the State Auditor, TIF uses the incremental property taxes, or “tax increments,” generated by the increased taxable value of a new development to help finance qualifying costs. TIF is not a tax reduction; taxes are paid on the full taxable value. The original taxable value continues to be part of the tax base that supports the tax levies of the city, county, school district, and other taxing jurisdictions. The new, additional value from development activity is “captured” from the tax base for the duration of the TIF district. After the TIF district is terminated, or “decertified,” the captured value becomes part of the tax base.

Should plans go through, the building would be the first new apartments in Frazee in decades.

According to Mayor Mike Sharp, the 2019 Frazee Housing study projected six to eight new units of housing demand per year. 

“The last apartment building that was built were the Maple Avenue ones in the late 90’s and prior to that it was Rivercrest,” Sharp said. “This would be the newest apartment complex by 30 years.”

Every council member stated they have heard from constituents, especially elderly residents, who want more affordable housing options in Frazee, along with new teachers and recent graduates.

“Those demand drivers cues me to what direction we’re probably try to lean a little heavier towards on build costs,” said Francis. 

He estimated the total cost of this project around $6 million for building costs only.

For more information on Turnkey visit: turnkeysolutionsdev.com