More Housing in Oil Country - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

More Housing in Oil Country

Eight decades ago, it opened its doors as a brand new high school.

And now - years after it ended its service as a school building - the former Central High School in Williston is getting a new life.

Groundbreaking was held this morning for a 10-and-a-half million dollar project to turn the building into affordable housing for senior citizens.

A total of 44 apartments will be fashioned from the historic building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Construction crews will begin demolishing the inside of the building next week.

Lieutenant Governor Drew Wrigley spoke at today's ceremony, praising the private-public partnership that made the project possible.

And he said it's important the a majority of the money for the project is coming from private investors.

(Drew Wrigley, -R- Lieutenant Governor) "It's all about sparking private sector investment because at the end of the day, we can talk about public sector dollars going in but this housing issue, crisis, whatever you want to call it, in the end will be solved by leveraging private sector investments. Markets work."

(Russell Kaney, Enterprise Community Investment) "We've been investing in affordable housing for over 30 years. We're always looking for partners that are trying to make affordable housing happen in communities across America, particularly in rural areas."

Funding for the project came from state and federal sources, plus Lutheran Social Services, and the private company called Enterprise Community Investment which invested about seven million dollars of the 10-point-6 million dollar total.

The apartments should be ready for occupancy by the end of next year.