Students have the chance to name a contested housing project north of North Dakota State.
Roers Development is offering a student-housing community naming contest that will end April 20. Students and community members can submit input in a survey to Roers with the chance to win a $500 Scheels gift card. If a person’s suggestion is picked, they will win a $250 Scheels gift card, Roers property director Danielle Paulus said.
“This development will be taking student housing to the next level,” Paulus said.
Northport neighborhood residents have been putting up a fight against the development, though the project has been “approved by the city commission,” Paulus said.
“We are excited about moving forward with our project,” she said. “(We) look forward to having the public input on naming development.”
This comes after Northport neighborhood residents accumulated signatures and support to receive a supermajority of the commission to approve the change.
The project is on the old Ponyland spot at the corner of 32nd Avenue North and University Drive in Fargo.
The student housing project would wipe out 15 acres of single-family residences and 10 acres of multifamily residences.
Many Northport neighborhood residents didn’t want that, Roers vice president Larry Nygard settled with enough room to place about 350 apartment units and 24 single-family/twinhomes.
“Our zoning request was approved by the city and we are moving forward with the project,” Paulus said.
Roers got its wish.
Paulus said the “first phase of the development” will be ready for rent in fall 2017.
The development will host a pool, hot tub, sauna, fitness center, yoga studio, basketball court, sand volleyball court, study pods, conference rooms and walking trails, among other amenities.
“We spent time researching and surveying what students and parents want and developed a cohesive product that we think students and their parents would be proud of,” Roers said in a press release.
Freshman Joey Tatarek, a business management major, said he likes being on campus within walking distance of the Wallman Wellness Center, adding the Ponyland development has an interesting model.
“If I got a place off campus I probably wouldn’t be able to go as much, so if I had that in my apartment that would be a huge positive,” Tatarek said.
Tatarek has been looking for off-campus housing as his first year at NDSU is coming to a close but he is having trouble finding a new home.
“We looked into Niskanen, but the wait list was very long so we decided not to put in our application so now we are worried about what kind of lease we could sign,” Tatarek said.
More off-campus housing options would be better for all freshmen at NDSU as well as other students, and Tatarek said “on campus is in high demand and way more expensive and more options is always better.”