Five new buildings planned in Waupaca
By Angie Landsverk
Construction of five apartment buildings is planned on Waupaca’s west side.
SCS Land Company proposed two 16-unit buildings and three eight-unit buildings at West Fulton Street and Stone Ridge Road for a total of 56 new units.
All of them will be two-bedroom units with attached garages and varied floorplans.
They will be built in front of the company’s existing SCS Timber Ridge Apartments.
“We are starting engineering work at the site and then will be able to finalize the site plan,” Jacqui Miller told the Waupaca County Post.
She is the company’s business development manager.
Construction is scheduled to begin next fall, Miller said.
“Once we start the first building, we will move through the site,” she told the city’s Plan Commission last month.
The project is expected to be completed in about 15 months.
An on-site recreational area and a trail system connecting the apartments to the sidewalk in front of them are part of the proposal.
The parcel where the units are to be built was for sale a couple years with no interest, Miller said.
The city approved a Planned Unit Development for the site in 2007, said Andrew Dane, Waupaca’s interim director of community and economic development.
It was to be a two-phase project.
Construction of the six buildings on the site was the first phase, he said.
Miller said there are 96 units in all there, with some of them one-bedroom units and others two-bedroom units.
The garages are detached.
Second phase never started
Dane said the second phase involved the lower parcel on the site.
It was identified as planned commercial/office in the future, he said.
“The use did not materialize,” Dane said. “With an increasing demand for more residential and the desire to get more housing in the city, the developer approached the city about six months ago.”
The parcel needed to be rezoned to allow for the project.
The common council unanimously approved rezoning it from commercial to multiple family when it met on Dec. 3.
Ald. Dmitri Martin was absent.
More apartments needed
At the November Plan Commission meeting, Miller explained how the company saw a need to build more apartments here.
The company has apartments throughout the state.
“We usually like to see a 5% vacancy rate,” she said.
At SCS Timber Ridge Apartments, the vacancy rate has continued to drop, she said.
Last year, the 96 units were 100% occupied every month except one, Miller said.
There was one vacancy that month, she said.
Miller said the company receives lots of inquiries for apartments that have two bedrooms, two bathrooms and an attached garage.
She said SCS Land Company will be the general contractor for the project and also use local contractors.
“This has actually been the strongest site over the last year,” Miller said.