Officials break ground on senior development
The Vermillion Crossing senior housing development doesn’t yet exist as anything more significant than lines on paper, but potential residents are already getting excited to live there.
- Image: Senior housing
The Vermillion Crossing senior housing development doesn’t yet exist as anything more significant than lines on paper, but potential residents are already getting excited to live there.
The Dakota County Community Development Agency will break ground May 4 on the 66-unit complex for residents 55 and older, but CDA executive director Mark Ulfers said the agency has already heard from people who want to know when they can put their name in for one of the apartments.
Planning for the new development started in 2009. It will be the 24th senior facility the CDA has opened in Dakota County.
Recently released census numbers show a growing senior population in Dakota County, and in Farmington. According to Ulfers, 19 percent of Farmington residents are between 55 and 74 and another 3.3 percent are 75 or older. One recent study showed a need for 175 new units of senior housing.
“We see the stories and the studies almost weekly on the numbers of seniors and the growth in the senior population,” Ulfers said. “We usually open with 100 percent of the units committed.”
The Vermillion Crossing development will be built on Dushane Parkway, south of Highway 50 and west of Denmark Avenue. It will be the first significant construction in the Vermillion River Crossing development since the opening of a McDonald’s and a FamilyHealth medical clinic in 2007.
There will be 32 one-bedroom units and 34 two-bedroom units in the facility. Sixty of the units will have fixed rents and the other six will be market rate. Income limits for the fixed-rent units will be $45,100 for a one-person household and $51,550 for a two-person household.
The building will offer heated underground parking, a screened porch, a fitness room and a community room with a kitchen. All doors will have keyless entry.
The building will be the CDA’s fourth entirely smoke-free senior housing project.
“We’ve built 23 of these, and we’d like to think we keep improving them,” Ulfers said. “We think this will be one of our nicest.”
The CDA held groundbreaking ceremony for the facility at 3 p.m. May 4. At the ceremony, Farmington mayor Todd Larson called the project a benefit for farmington.
"I consider this project a gift to the city of Farmington. I'm not ashamed to say I did a little begging," Larson said. "I'm hoping this project will inspire other people to come and build in the city of Farmington."
Ulfers expects construction on the facility to take about 10 months. Applications will be available soon, with priority given to people who live in Farmington or who have family here. Everyone who submits an application by June 30 will be entered into a drawing for placement in the facility.
For more information call 651-675-4400 or visit www.dakotacda.org.
Tags: news, farmington, seniors
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