Former NW Iowa nursing home to be converted into apartments

LAKE PARK, Iowa (KUOO) - A building in Lake Park that formerly housed a nursing home is getting some new life.

The former Aspire Nursing Home has been standing vacant for several years now. The Lake Park City Council on Monday, July 13, approved a request to rezone the property on which the building stands from single-family residential to multi-family residential.

Adam Howerzyl is with Axis, an Orange City real estate management firm that plans to renovate the building.

“We plan to completely remodel the nursing home, turn it into a market-rate apartment complex that would have anywhere from 16 to 20 units in it, a mix of one, two, and three-bedroom apartments,” he explained.

Howerzyl says Axis has a good track record with similar projects in the region.

“Our company is based out of Orange City and throughout our years we’ve done several different development projects. We’ve also done reconstruction projects like this,” said Howerzyl. “Most recently we did one in Emmetsburg. It was an existing care facility, turned it into a 20-unit apartment building, so a very similar conversion project. It went very well, so we’ve been looking for additional projects like this ever since.”

The Lake Park City Council also on Monday approved a 10-year 100 percent tax abatement for the project.

“As part of our project, we request tax credits from the state, and some prerequisites for those tax credits, we need for the application, at least, we need a resolution of support from the city and then also some form of match from the city and so the form of match we requested is a 10-year tax abatement,” Howerzyl said.

Provided that process goes favorably, Howerzyl says construction could get underway soon after.

“We plan to submit the application by September 1, and then we’ll find out sometime before the end of the year whether or not it’s approved, and then, yeah, pending approval, we would begin construction sometime in spring of 2027,” he said.

Howerzyl says Axis could be looking at other projects in Lake Park depending upon how well this one goes.

“There’s certainly a possibility for additional investment in Lake Park. I’m not necessarily going to say yes or no, but I think if the project goes well we could certainly be open to it. We like the community. I think it’s great; there’s great need in the community and I think we’d be able to support that,” Howerzyl said.

City council member Joe Whitney said it’s an important step in helping address a shortage of affordable housing and will also hopefully help fill seats in the Harris-Lake Park schools.

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