2006-03-21_Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 March 21, 2003 Project Concept Summary : Har Mar Apartments is an existing 120-unit ap artment community built in 1968 in Roseville. It is conveniently located just southwest of the intersec tion of Snelling and Highway 36 in Roseville, near the Rosedale shopping center, Super Target, Har Mar shopping mall, and a host of other commercial retail services. Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT) worked with the City of Roseville staff to identify an existing multifamily apartment building that was struggling in the market place and was in need of reinvestment. Currently, the property is almost half vacant and is in need of moderate to substantial rehabilitation, as well as a new marketing and ma nagement strategy. These almost 40-year old structures are 2 ½ story walk -up apartments typical of that era. Many times when these older buildings are stressed with vacancy, social issues and years of deferred maintenance, the typical knee-jerk solution is to tear down th e buildings and start over. CCHT believes a better and more cost effective resolution is to preser ve the buildings--keeping va luable building materials out of the landfill, update and re habilitate them, and preserve th ese community resources that have been serving the community for decades. There are 5 buildings with 21 to 26 one-bedroom units per building. Roseville has an overabundance of one-bedroom apartments, crea ting significant competition in the market. Feasibility and marketing evaluation shows that diversifying the unit types is important to improve the vitality and marketability of the property. CCHT will modify the unit conf igurations to appropriately incorporate some two-bedroom units. Modifying the unit layouts will result in a smaller number of actual units in the existing apartment buildings . We anticipate appro ximately 100 rehabilitated apartment units when complete, of these, about 70 will remain as one-bedroom apartments and about 30 will be converted to two-bedroom apartments. Retaining the existing layouts of the majority as one-bedroom units will he lp keep rehabilit ation costs lower. CCHT will also make considerable improvements to the building exteriors, add landscaping, recreation areas, and significantly improve the curb appeal to convey current apartment community trends. The 5.4 acre site allows for the construction of approximately 50 additional apartment units. Since there are so many one-be droom apartments in the existing build ing, the new building will feature two and three-bedroom apartments. The new building will provide underground parking to alleviate surface parking needs on the site. They will be built in a traditional style th at will incorporate front porches and other features that will encourag e community engagement and defensible space principles. Following the spring 2006 acquisition , the property will be financed and developed in two phases, beginning with the rehabilitation of the existing units, followed by the new construction. A variety of unit sizes, styles and price ranges will accommodat e various lifestyles of Roseville residents. Economic inte gration of workforce housing and market rate apartments will help fulfill housing needs for the multitude of Roseville’s se rvice sector employees and those who can afford market rate rents.