Utility work complete on former Sharkee's lot

Luverne City Council members made their final payment in December for utility improvements on the former Sharkee’s and Mert’s Welding property.
H&W Contracting, Sioux Falls, has been working on utility improvements at the intersection of Highway 75 and Hatting Street.
This project installed water and sewer throughout the area between Highway 75 and Freeman Avenue to the east.
The work is complete except for some tracer wire work that needs to be completed and tested before the project can be closed out. 
The city approved final payment in December so that the project can be closed out in 2019.
The final pay certificate of $15,104 covers some of the mobilization costs and bundles up all of the small miscellaneous change orders that were approved by the engineer during the course of the project.
The total cost for infrastructure improvements to the property come to roughly $350,000 in order to prepare the lot for the Towne Square mixed use development.
 
Project still on track for development
As the lots were cleared and prepared for development, the property became eligible for Opportunity Zone incentives through the federal Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017.
However, that option was stalled by the federal government shutdown, and when DEED offices reopened, the local application was delayed in a paperwork backlog.
Luverne developer Don Jahnke is still working with those investors and their lenders to finalize financing for the project.
The overall plan is to transform the entire six-acre area over the next five years into a commercial and housing neighborhood known as the Towne Square Addition.
Property will be sold off as it is developed into housing and commercial property in the mixed-use development.
Because of the more immediate need for housing, Jahnke and investors will first build a 27-unit, one- and two-bedroom apartment building.