March 29, 2024

Changes made to site plans for Lion Development apartments

Former Seed Store lot likely to become 38-unit complex

Pending severe weather or an onslaught of heavy precipitation from now until early winter, Lion Development Group plans to break ground before the end of the year for its 38-unit apartment complex built on the former Newton Seed Store lot.

Originally planned as a $4.5 million, 42-unit market-rate apartment complex, Lion Development Group owner Brandon Pratt said changes had to be made recently. While developing the site, which had been purchased from the city for $350,000, engineers realized the initial building plan was too wide, prompting tweaks from Lion Development Group’s architects.

“We ended up losing one row — those last few apartments,” Pratt said. “There are going to be 38 units (instead of 42). Thirty-two of them are two-bedroom units, four one-bedroom units and two three-bedroom units.”

All of the two-bedroom apartment units, he added, will include two bathrooms, as will the two three-bedroom units. One-bedroom residences will only be equipped with one bathroom. Although the number of units has altered from the original plan, Pratt said the complex will still remain as a three-story building with elevator access to all three floors.

Pratt told the Newton Daily News in June he expected the unit sizes to be about 850 square feet, an estimate that remains largely unchanged for the 32 two-bedroom apartments, of which 31 measure 854 square feet while only one measures 845 square feet. Of the four one-bedroom units, two are 609 square feet and the other two 591 square feet, about half the size of the two, three-bedroom residences which take up 1,180 square feet.

Each unit will come equipped with a deck or ground floor patio, as well as upgraded light fixtures, luxury vinyl tile flooring throughout the facility and solid surface countertops, among other amenities. Garages, right now, are only a possibility, Pratt said. Lion Development Group is still pricing and discerning if eight or so garages are feasible with the current plan.

Lion Development Group, he added, is not attempting to building “the Taj Mahal of apartments,” but Pratt does want a product that can cater to “somebody who wants to stay in Newton, work in Newton and isn’t currently in the Newton area” and is also built to last.

“I’m not your stereotypical apartment developer who comes in and builds something very cheap, fills them up and then sells them to some hedge fund out in California and leaves town,” Pratt said. “We’re going to be invested into the community.”

Newton City Administrator Matt Muckler said the city is “putting the finishing touches on the abstract work and should be ready to close” shortly, especially now that an alley on the 200 block of North Third Avenue West has been vacated to the development site. The change in the final number of apartment units, Muckler added, will be brought before the Newton City Council.

“Our planning and zoning department is currently reviewing what Lion Development submitted, so we’re kind of working through that process,” Muckler said Thursday. “It likely would require an amendment to our development agreement. It’s a minor change … I think (the council) will be supportive of the changes.”

The development also aligns with the city’s priorities to expand multiple family housing into downtown Newton, which Muckler said in one of the more exciting parts about the Lion Development Group project.

“There’s just a lot of positive things going on in our downtown district and it’s something we just feel very fortunate that we have that kind of momentum going in our downtown right now,” Muckler said. “It’s part of this overall revitalization of the downtown area in Newton.”

Pratt echoed that sentiment.

“Newton needs the housing; the employers need the housing,” he said. “And I think the city realizes that if they attract the housing, the commercial will follow. Once the housing comes, it’s going to create more opportunities for restaurants and other commercial ventures and industry. They just need someone to step up to the plate and give them a try.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com