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Broadway Circle circles back to city

City plans to move project forward without LSSND

Submitted Photo A proposed family homeless shelter is shown in this Broadway Circle rendering from EAPC.

A resilience project to build affordable housing and a family homeless shelter on South Broadway is moving forward despite the loss of its developer.

A request for planned unit development zoning will go to the Minot Planning Commission Tuesday for Broadway Circle at 1901 S. Broadway. Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota filed the application Dec. 23. LSSND announced this month that it is closing.

“They are out of business but the project is alive,” said John Zakian, Minot’s National Disaster Resilience Program manager. “There is no reason why we shouldn’t go ahead and approve it because we are still going to do the project. It’s just going to be with a different entity.”

In visiting with individuals from the remnants of LSSND, it was decided that the property will be voluntarily conveyed to the City of Minot, which will then own it and seek to find another entity or entities to continue the vision.

“The good news is the funds remaining are all the funds that are necessary to complete the project,” Zakian said. The project has $2.74 million for the family shelter and up to $3.06 million for the affordable rental units from the city’s Community Development Block Grant-National Disaster Resilience grant.

Submitted Photo A 17-unit affordable housing project is part of the proposed Broadway Circle, as shown in this EAPC rendering.

“We are in good shape,” Zakian said. “We really haven’t lost any time because we, obviously, have the land and the land has been cleared sufficiently to be able to do the project.”

Two motel buildings on the property were demolished last November.

LSSND had been prepared to go out for bid on Feb. 23. The construction timetable was to start in mid-April and finish by the end of July 2022.

The partner or partners that the city will be seeking will need to show the financial ability and expertise to operate Broadway Circle’s complex.

The request going before the planning commission is for a mix of housing for homeless and low-to-moderate income families with a playground, a commercial restaurant, office space for the operating entity and space for congregate meals. The property already has a commercial restaurant, which will remain as an income-generator, whether it continues as Hibachi Buffet and Grill or another entity.

The project – as described by LSSND and not expected to change – will include a six-unit, single-story, wood-framed family shelter and 17 units of affordable housing. The shelter will have two two-bedroom units with a bathroom and four units with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. One unit will be handicapped accessible. The program will offer stays up to 60 consecutive days.

Units will include a small refrigerator and microwave, but families will rely primarily on the on-site dining center for congregate meals. LSSND will have staff on site from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and three evenings a week while providing 24/7 phone access for tenants.

A two-story, wood-frame structure will provide 17 units of affordable rental housing, with a focus on tenants who have faced challenges in maintaining residency in traditional environments and who are at risk of homelessness. The building will include six studio units, eight one-bedroom units, two two-bedroom units and a unit for a caretaker. Two units will be handicapped accessible.

Space will be available for the Welcome Table Cafe and Lord’s Cupboard Food Pantry. A commercial kitchen will support the cafe, which will enhance existing church-sponsored soup kitchen meals in allowing a second community meal each day.

The proposal provides 102 parking stalls. City code is in the process of revision, but under the revision that will be in place at the time of construction, 109 stalls will be required. The planning commission will consider a deviance from the code for seven fewer spots based on the argument that some tenants and the residents who frequent the services often do not have access to personal vehicles and are more likely to use public transit. LSSND had been facilitating a new city transit stop on South Broadway.

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