By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Russell Development is a group of business individuals that have been working for some time to transform the former Holland Hotel into loft-style apartments. Tuesday the group got some big help as Governor Laura Kelly announced the city of Russell would be receiving $1 million to increase affordable and moderate-income housing.
The funds will be allocated from a house bill Kelly signed in May, and Russell Mayor Jim Cross said Rep. Troy Waymaster was of big assistance on the project. Cross said the city hopes to turn the hotel into as many as 11 apartments.
"The initial project started out thinking maybe seven (apartments)," he said. "After further study of the building, and having an engineer look at it, the expectations got a little higher."
The apartments will likely be studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units. There will be many costs associated with the transformation inside and outside of the 112-year-old building.
"To get everything up to code, I'm sure it's going to take every bit of that $1 million grant we received," Cross said.
The next step is getting bids for the project. Cross said locking down numbers sooner rather than later could be cost-beneficial, and getting contractors inside the building will help determine the new layout.
"You know the price of materials is not going to go down," he said. "As soon as you can get things procured and get some of those things in to try to keep the costs down, we're going to do that.
"It could be that we end up with less studio, more bedroom-type apartments, or the other way around, depending on what is there and what we can get bids taken for."
The former hotel sat vacant for two decades. Apartments are expected to range from 700 to 1,100 square feet and rent for $575 to $725 a month.