Buckingham Palace, Graceland, the White one, and even the one that Ruth built all have one thing in common. They’re all houses. Well, maybe not so much the one that Ruth built, but adding Yankee Stadium, “The house that (Babe) Ruth built”, allows me to make my baseball reference in this blog.
A few years ago, the City of Beatrice and Gage County conducted a housing study, which ultimately concluded our area needed more housing. Whether that meant single-family homes or multi-family homes our community has been positively impacted.
In case you haven’t been through the Hannibal View/Sun Ridge Development neighborhood, the area that sits just east of Hannibal Park along 26th Street, has seen a significant number of single-family homes constructed. For several years 32 lots have sat empty with no building activity in this subdivision. However, over the past 3-4 years construction has started and/or been completed on thirteen (13) single-family structures, with a fourteenth in the planning and permitting stages right now.
Additionally, we have seen a handful of local builders/contractors/investors step-up and restore several houses that appeared to be headed to the landfill. Some of these renovated houses needed a significant amount of labor and materials, anywhere from new foundations and gut jobs to simple interior and/or exterior facelifts. Whatever the case, these local builders/contractors/investors saved many houses in the city from their ultimate demise, while improving the housing inventory within the city.
Single-family housing wasn’t the only addition or improvement made to our housing stock here in the City of Beatrice. You may have noticed the four-story, 78-unit apartment building that sits just west of the 6th Street and Irving Street intersection. The addition of this apartment building provided affordable housing with modern finishes and amenities. This has been a nice addition to the community for a variety of reasons, but most importantly to improve the housing inventory.
Renovations did not stop with single-family structures. An investor purchased the two apartment buildings at the 5th Street and Grant Street intersection (northwest corner) and instilled life back into these buildings. A significant water leak from a frozen pipe several winters ago, along with various other systems failures had these buildings on the edge of demolition a few years ago, but with its newly renovated status and system upgrades, twelve (12) apartment units were placed back on the market.
When the housing study came out a few years ago, I heard a lot of discussions about how inaccurate it was and how the city did not need the increase as proposed by the study. Without getting into the numbers of the study, I will tell you a few things I know:
- All of the houses being built in Hannibal View/Sun Ridge Development neighborhood have been sold or are in the negotiations process.
- Over 30 of the 78 units at the Irving Street apartments have been leased, and they’ve only been open for two months,
- All of the available units at 5th and Grant apartment buildings have been leased.
As Babe Ruth once asked, “Who is richer? The man who is seen, but cannot see? Or the man who is not being seen, but can see?” I believe, more than ever, that right now the City of Beatrice has a number of organizations, loyal citizens, and leaders who are not being seen, but can see.
Looking back, it appears the housing study was correct, but looking forward, you have to be excited about the positive growth and changes happening in the City of Beatrice. But let’s not settle for yesterday’s home runs and keep trying to hit home runs in today’s game.
I hope every citizen gets a chance to read this article and remember how this is a team effort, as Babe Ruth said, “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime”.
Rob Mierau
Community Development Director