A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Developer Paul Vernon (left) and Carlton Mayor Mike Soderstrom cut the ribbon at a grand opening ceremony at Willows Edge apartments in Carlton.
Willows Edge and other new apartment buildings in the area offer a range of apartment sizes targeting a range of incomes and age groups.
The recently completed 14th Street Apartments III building in Cloquet is the third building in the complex across the street from Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. Developer David Chmielewski said they constructed the latest building in a record-breaking five months from the first shovel turn to occupancy. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the apartments have filled up.
Smila Erickson checks out a two-bedroom apartment at Willows Edge with Paul Vernon. She was tired of dealing with all the mowing and shoveling, so her grandson bought her house and she was apartment shopping.
In the six years since a housing study showed a need for lots of new housing in Cloquet and Scanlon, there's been what amounts to an apartment building boom.
That was the goal, said Cloquet Community Development director Holly Hansen. Seeing how many housing units the two cities needed - 260 rentals, 240 owned units - caught people's attention. And things started happening.
"It stimulated major conversation with lots of boards like the EDAs (economic development agencies, city councils, Carlton County, the HRA (Housing Redevelopment Agency) as well as businesses," Hansen said.
The message they heard was blunt. "'This is brutal; we don't have places for our workers,' they told us. We realized this is a topic," Hansen said. According to the study, the biggest concern for Black Bear Casino employees was the high cost of rental housing, apartments and houses alike. Workers who come from other cities such as Hinckley or Superior found the cost of housing prohibitive, so many just try to commute.
The city and EDA worked to use tax increment financing to housing instead of just businesses. An HRA committee attended a year-long housing program and came up with the idea of developing supportive low-income housing on the lot next to the existing Aspen Arms building - and got funding on their first try.
Six years later - through the collaborative efforts of many people and agencies and with some financial assistance - developers have built a grand total of 128 new general occupancy apartment units in Cloquet. The apartments are for renters of any age, although many fit a certain income classification, from market rate to highly subsidized apartments.
• The former Cloquet Middle School building, known now as Carlton Lofts, was remodeled to hold 57 apartments.
• There are 35 units in the brand-new White Pine Apartments on 14th Street in Cloquet.
• The completion of the third 14th Street Apartments building added another 36 units.
There are now 112 units at the 14th Street complex across from Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. The new building is already full, developer David Chmielewski said.
That's a grand total of 128 new apartments when the study called for another 120 general occupancy units. Check that box, Hansen said.
However, it's the other half of the rental needs identified in the study - 140 age-restricted units for seniors - that has not boomed. In fact, as of 2019, there were zero new age-restricted units built in Cloquet or Scanlon over the previous five years.
That's changing, though.
In June, the Cloquet City Council approved a tax increment finance housing district for the next phase of the Trails Edge senior duplex rental project. Owner Jim Kuklis previously constructed 11 buildings (with two units each) and will now construct the remaining five lots along the south edge of the project. The project is age-restricted to residents aged 55 and older, and no children are allowed.
Even more of the area's senior housing needs are being answered only a few miles from the city limits, where the Willows Edge apartments celebrated a grand opening late last month. The 30-unit building sits along Carlton Road between Inter-Faith Care Center and the bike trail, within walking or biking distance of downtown Carlton.
Developer Paul Vernon said the building is limited to renters ages 55 and older. Kids are not allowed to live there, but dogs 20 pounds and under are allowed. No cats (they're hard on the furniture and carpets, Vernon said). There is a community room available to tenants, and an elevator to the second floor. It's a good location if you have a loved one in the nearby nursing home or assisted living facility.
Vernon said he was getting two to three calls a day about the new apartment building from December through February. The first group moved in in March. Then coronavirus arrived. Suddenly the calls dropped off to almost nothing.
"Covid hit us like a sledgehammer," Vernon said. "I think we took four calls in three months and then on June 1 we had three calls and they all rented. We're about half full now."
Vernon said older people decided to stay put when the pandemic hit, but that's changing. He stressed that the apartments at Willows Edge do not share air, that renters just need to be smart about how they conduct themselves in shared spaces such as hallways and elevators. He has plans for a second building at Willows Edge that could come as soon as 2022.
When older people move out of their homes and into apartments, it opens up their single-family homes to younger families and creates a healthier ebb and flow in the housing market.
The same 2014 housing study found that Cloquet/Scanlon could use 200 new single-family homes and 40 multifamily units by 2025. That's been a tougher number to meet.
