Tenants Clear Out of Park East Apartments

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The $9 million purchase of the Park East Apartments has been finalized.

Tenants have until July 15th to relocate and the building will be demolished in the fall to make way for diversion work.

Jeffrey Smith left the Park East Apartments for the last time this morning.

“When I step in my apartment and look at the big trees and I know that they’re going to bulldoze them down, it’s a really nice place,” Smith says.

He was one of more than 200 tenants that had to relocate to make way for a large levee that will be part of flood protection.

“The flood wall project wasn’t a surprise and we kind of, you know, we were watching it,” Smith says.

Once known as one of the most unique apartment buildings in the city, its parking lot is now a ghost town and there are only about 12 occupied units left.

“A lot of people that are being impacted and I think we’re trying to be sensitive and follow all the proper steps in that,” says AE2S Operations Manager Eric Dodds.

But now it’s time to move forward. Once the remaining tenants are gone, Habitat for Humanity will be allowed to go through the units to take any usable items. Then the Fargo Fire Department will use the building for rescue training.

“And then later this fall there will be a demo contractor that will be hired and they will come in and basically demolish the building, level off the site and then get it ready for the levee construction which will start next spring,” says Dodds.

While Smith says that most tenants accepted the fact that they had to move, there are several things he will miss like the proximity to the river.

“I’ll miss walking on the river, I’ll miss the indoor pool especially in the winter time, and I’ll just miss, I don’t know, the landscaping it’s just a really nice building,” Smith says.

Construction on the site is expected to start and finish next year.