Newton Place Apartments available next summer

The community voiced a need and the City of Newton listened. By working with the Miller-Valentine Group, the city implemented the development and construction of a large residential living space near downtown Newton, set to open next summer.

The apartment home community is located four blocks from the Newton square at 222 N. Fourth Ave. W. and is designed exclusively for adults 62 and over.

Based off feedback from the Community Housing Assessment Team survey, local residents expressed a need for more affordable housing options for independent seniors.

The Newton Housing Development Corporation took the lead with seeking out interested developers and connected with Cincinnati-based Miller-Valentine Group, according to Newton’s Director of Finance and Development Bryan Friedman.

The city endorsed the partnership with MV and provided incentives to the project such as a $150,000 infrastructure grant and 10 years of partial property tax rebates. MV was also approved, in a very competitive process, for tax credits from the State of Iowa for the Newton Place Apartments.

The homes will be two bedroom, one bath units with many amenities for its residents such as kitchens with breakfast bars and islands, energy efficient appliances, large closets and step in showers.

Newton Place Apartments will also be equipped with a fitness center, media room, business center and a community room with kitchen and seating as well as 24-hour maintenance service.

Pete Schwiegeraht, MV Residential Development Developer, visited the Newton City Council meeting Monday evening to give a project update.

Due to an unstable site and a large amount of precipitation, the project has had a few setbacks but is still on track for a completion date for summer 2015.

“There were some known environment issues with the site as we started excavation, but because of some contaminated soils it was going to lead to a slow site work process,” Schwiegeraht said.

Developers budgeted for at least 70 geopiers, a tool inserted 30 feet into the ground to provide settlement support and stabilize structures. The building will not be built on the soil, but positioned on geopiers. The need for geopiers is not uncommon in redevelopment of land where homes were once in place like the land on North Fourth Avenue West.

“While we did all sorts of geotech investigation, we found six surprised foundations from those old buildings as we went along as well.”

The summer rainfall conflicted with the foundation schedule, and a retaining wall has been built to provide even more structure protection. Portions of the foundation were poured last week while the remained are scheduled for next week.

The building will go vertically by the end of the year, Schwiegeraht said.

MV has plans for an extensive marketing effort beginning after the new year. It has received calls and projects the occupancy to fill up fast.

“We’re happy to give seniors in the Newton an opportunity to age in place, age locally and stay independent. That’s the key, is to allow those to stay independent,” Schwiegeraht said.

This fall, MV made an additional application for downtown development and available funding from the State of Iowa. This project would be designed for young professionals, or DMACC students and those interested in the downtown environment.

The project would total $6 million dollars in development for the building of a “quality, workforce-oriented housing” structure that would include 33, one to three bedroom units, a theater, fitness center and business center.

MV will find out if its received funding for the project on Jan. 5, 2015.