Lions Gate Apartments taking applications

Newton’s newest apartment complex is less than a month away from opening its doors to the public and its now accepting applications.

Lions Gate Apartments has been hosting open houses for the public from 3:30 to 6 p.m. every Tuesday and will continue until the end of September. Julie Calder, owner of Gemstone Property Management, said would-be or interested renters may also call 515-240-6367 to schedule a tour by appointment.

“Everybody has been really impressed with them,” Calder said of the reactions from people who have taken tours thus far. “They’re great units. They have stainless steel appliances. They’re two bedrooms and two baths, so they are pretty good sized units. They have privacy balconies. There are just a lot of amenities.”

The 38-unit, market-rate apartment complex spearheaded by Lion Development Group features a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom housing units, all of which combine rent, utilities and internet payments into a one-check-a-month sum. Calder said the location of Lions Gate Apartments to downtown, hospital and other businesses is also “very convenient” for renters.

The three-bedroom, two-bathroom units are 1,180 square feet. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom units are 845 square feet. The two separate one-bedroom, one-bathroom units are 609 and 591 square feet.

Also included is a roughly 400-square-foot community room available to tenants who wish to host a party, family get-together or clear a spot to watch a football game with friends. Calder said this space can be reserved by renters ahead of time and comes included with a TV, full-size refrigerator and cabinets.

Brandon Pratt, owner of Lion Development Group, said a great deal of time and effort was dedicated to the design of the building itself, which was planned in a way that a similar structure can be expanded or shrunken down depending on the size of the lot if the group were to duplicate the complex elsewhere. Construction has been going well so far too, he said.

“We’ve actually stayed on schedule,” Pratt said, crediting the City of Newton for being “fabulous to work with” during this process. “Last end of summer or fall we saw historic rainfall. It’s starting to rain but we feel like we’ve stayed to a pretty good schedule. My goal from day one was to try get open by September or October. We’re obviously going to open up by Oct. 1.”

Based out of North Liberty, Lion Development Group designed the apartment complex in the old Newton Seed Store lot roughly halfway between the Jasper County Courthouse Square and DMACC’s Legacy Plaza. Focused on making quality units, Pratt said the apartments may feel more like condos.

“My goal is not to build junk, fill ‘em up and then sell ‘em,” Pratt said. “I’m not trying to enter Newton, make some money and then exit. That’s not my goal. This is a longterm play. I want to build units that are going to be good and classy for a long time.”

Pratt said he is “super impressed” with how the building is turning out, although there is still work to be done before the complex begins renting out units.

“These are a little bit different apartments in terms of what people saw 20 or 30 years ago,” Pratt said. “It’s painted white trim. It’s LVT flooring. It’s stainless steel countertops. The countertops match the flooring, match the appliances, match the outside of the building. So just the flow from when you walk on the outside and when you walk in and go into the actual units — it felt like we didn’t miss.

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