New senior apartments to be built

Groundbreaking ceremonies last week launched work on Van Ee Apartments in north Kalispell.

Devin Vander Schaaf, marketing specialist for Accessible Space Inc. of St. Paul, Minn., named the 23-unit development after his grandmother, Ruth Van Ee Saholt, of Whitefish.

At the July 30 groundbreaking, Saholt was present along with her grandson and her son, Stephen Vander Schaaf, president and CEO of Accessible Space.

Van Ee Apartments will house low-income seniors. The apartments will be handicapped-accessible and are subsidized by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Located in north Kalispell at 420 Grandview Drive, the apartments will have a bicycle trail that connects with Indian Trail Road to the west.

The apartments required a conditional use permit, which the Kalispell City Council approved July 2009.

There was significant neighborhood opposition, so the developer lowered the roof to 28 feet, 5 inches on the two-story building, City Planner Tom Jentz said.

Council member Jim Atkinson said the apartments will be “very helpful to senior citizens and disabled folks. I think it’s going to be a very good project.”

Tenants are required to be 62 or older and have income of 50 percent or less of the area’s median income.

Each of the apartments will have one bedroom except for a two-bedroom unit for the caretaker.

Interested people can call Accessible Space property management at 1-800-466-7722 to be put on an interest list. Applications will be accepted beginning three months before the opening date.

Construction of the apartments will begin sometime this month or next, according to Accessible Space Director Dan Billmark.

The plan is to get the foundation laid so that work inside the structure can be done over the winter months. The target date for completion is 10 months after construction begins.