The Sundance apartment complex is the last of three areas near Highland Street to be developed by Nick Laurent and Fred Neuer. The process began in 2003 with the construction of Prairie Sage Apartment Homes and was soon followed up with The Lofts nearby.
When finished, all the Sundance homes will be one-bedroom, one-level residences with full appliances, including a stack washer-dryer. Dirt work began at 1220 Highland St. in early January, but was delayed by the recent snowfall.
“Our plan is to finish Sundance in time for the fall semester of 2007,” Laurent said. “If we get students, that’s just lovely. If we get retired people, that’s fine. It’d be good for the retired.”
As a near neighbor of Emporia State University, many of the apartments in Prairie Sage and The Lofts are rented to undergraduate or graduate students, with some young professionals mixed in.
The complex will consist of two four-plexes and a seven-plex, a total of 15 apartments, which is fewer than originally planned. Laurent and Neuer had wanted three six-plexes — 18 spaces — but were blocked by the Emporia-Lyon County Joint Board of Zoning Appeals, which refused to allow the last three apartments and said more parking was needed.
“They want us to pour more concrete, which is kind of frustrating,” Laurent said. “These are one-bedroom apartments, more for professional people and less for the party types. You don’t need as many parking places nearby.”
But the spaces are going in. And even with the extra concrete, the developers still plan to make it attractive.
“We want this to be nice and not just for the university,” said Cory Haag, the manager for the complexes. “With the downtown renovations in Streetscape, we want to have a partnership with the downtown. There just aren’t enough apartments throughout the downtown that are new housing. We hope this’ll bring some more people downtown.”
Initially, the property went through a number of names: The Crossings, The Vista, The Plaza.
“None of them really seemed to go with Prairie Sage,” Laurent said. “Sundance just seemed to go with it much better.”
Rent for the apartments will be between $575 and $600. A basic plan of the apartments can be found at the company’s Web site, www.prairiesage.com.
So far, contacts on the Web site have come from Florida, from Chicago, even from Finland.
“Hopefully, by the time we’re ready to roll, it’ll be pretty much rented out,” Laurent said.