Grand Forks Shopping

More downtown housing on the way

Construction of a new four-story building has risen out of the rubble of the former Civic Auditorium on the western edge of downtown Grand Forks.

The $6.2 million, Northern Heights at Griggs Square is slated to open in August on the site of the former venerable events center. The building will feature 53 apartment units, a restaurant, commercial space and an underground parking structure.

Across the street, on what was formerly a parking lot next to the GuestHouse International hotel, foundation work is beginning for a second apartment complex. The more than $5.5 million, three-story 40-unit The Aurora at Griggs Square will include a fitness room, an outdoor deck overlooking a plaza and separate green space with an outdoor playground.

City leaders hope the two developments will serve as a catalyst for future commercial growth downtown. The projects also provide more downtown housing options.

“We believe that by creating this housing on what is kind of the fringe of downtown, we will be able to add people and help spur further retail and commercial development downtown,” said Greg Hoover, the city’s urban development director.

City officials also are mulling plans for a nearby rainwater and sculpture garden that would serve as a symbolic gateway to downtown just east of the DeMers Avenue railroad overpass. Future improvements to the surrounding neighborhood are expected as part of a strategic plan covering an area that extends between DeMers Avenue and University Avenue from east of the railroad tracks to the Red River.

“We want to contribute to the city’s vision for the redevelopment of the old Civic area by creating something that is exciting,” said Randall Schold, co-president of St. Paul-based MetroPlains LLC, the development firm behind the Aurora at Griggs Square project. “From the beginning of the idea stage, (the city) really made it clear that they wanted to create something unique and special — something that would be different than what’s available in other areas of town.”

Following in the footsteps of the successful Elite Brownstones condo project and The Current apartments — another MetroPlains project — the two complexes are already generating attention.

All but one of the 53 apartments in the Northern Heights at Griggs Square complex have already been rented.

“There was a need for more housing downtown,” said Kevin Ritterman, president of Grand Forks-based Dakota Commercial and Development, which developed the project. “We tried to help fill that void.

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