Fairway Hills to add Vista Park condos

By Dan Daly, Journal staff | Monday, August 06, 2007

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RAPID CITY -- A new condominium project is about to get underway on Sheridan Lake Road in Rapid City.

The project, named Vista Park at Fairway Hills, will be made up of 96 units, ranging in size from one-bedroom, 860-square-foot homes to 1,500-square-foot homes with large dens.

Mike Buckingham, who manages the Fairway Hills complex for parent company Dlorah Inc., said the company considered building the project as rental apartments, but decided to sell the units as condominiums.

"We've done a market study, and we're confident this will be viable," said Buckingham.

The target markets are "snowbirds" -- people who spend winters in Arizona or other warm weather areas -- as well as young professionals and empty-nesters who don't want the space, expense and maintenance headaches of a single-family home.

The Buckingham family bought the Fairway Hills land back in 1956. Over the years, it has become a community that includes twin homes, townhouses, condominiums, apartments and single-family homes.

Buckingham said this new project will complete the residential portion of the Fairway Hills Planned Residential Development. There is a small amount of commercially zoned property that remains undeveloped, he said, but there are no current plans to build there.

The project will bring the total number of housing units in Fairway Hills to 330.

Originally, the company planned to put the 96 units in two large buildings, but for aesthetic reasons divided it into four buildings. "We really tried to take advantage of the environment and the view," he said.

Prices in the new complex will start $189,000, and the first building should be ready for occupancy by April.

The decision to build the complex as a condominium development will set Vista Park apart from the rest of the apartment rental market in Rapid City.

According to building permit records from the city of Rapid City, construction of apartment buildings is beginning to climb out of its 2005 slump. That was the year that the Pentagon announced it was closing Ellsworth Air Force Base. By the end of that summer, however, Ellsworth was taken off the base closure list.

That year, just 48 apartment units -- in buildings with five or more homes -- were issued permits. In 2006, apartment construction climbed to 214 units. This year alone, permits for 302 apartment units have been issued.

This year's apartment construction growth is due to a single project. Belgarde Enterprises, the big apartment developer, recently started work on the Stoney Creek Highlands complex on Catron Boulevard just south of Fairway Hills.

Belgarde's project will add 278 apartments to the West Rapid City rental market. Gloria Hunt, who will manage the complex when it opens, said garages and offices are currently under construction. Once the office building is completed, she said, work will start on the first buildings.

Dlorah also owns National American University. It's a growing company with school campuses scattered in South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico and Colorado. Buckingham said the company has three new nursing schools under construction at various locations in the region.

  

Contact Daly at 394-8421 or at dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com