The City of Carroll has scheduled a public hearing for their next regular meeting, Monday, Dec. 14, to review a development proposal on North Main Street at the site of the former Carroll City Apartments. A Request for Proposals (RFP) was approved on Oct. 12, seeking those interested in purchasing the lot for residential development. City Manager, Mike Pogge-Weaver, says even though the RFP was visited more than 100 times online, they received only one proposal from Rowland Real Estate LLC of Clive. Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio
To move forward with the offer, the city is required to hold the public hearing. Following that, the council will be tasked with deciding whether or not to move ahead with accepting the proposal. Andy Rowland, with Rowland Real Estate, says he has agreed to some requests from city staff members to make alterations to their original fourplex plan to provide more curb appeal.
Other aesthetic items that will be added include landscaping along the front and a couple of trees on the lot and the potential addition of shutters. Each of these rental units has a single-car garage that is accessed from the alley. Those will be at 25 feet deep to allow for some additional storage space. Rowland describes the layout of the two-story units.
The refrigerator, dishwasher, stove and microwave will be included with an anticipated rental rate of $1,000 per unit. The city purchased the property after it was deemed a dangerous building site, razing the building and cleaning up the lot at an estimated cost of $150,000. The new construction could also be eligible for a five-year tax abatement of $75,000 per unit. The RFP included completion guidelines. If accepted, Rowland would have nine months to begin construction and 18 months to finish.