Oppidan invests $100 million across Bakken

By Jenna Ebersole/Williston Herald | Posted: Saturday, August 11, 2012 8:52 pm

As the housing crunch continues across the Williston area, one mostly commercial investment company said they saw the need for something different – residential housing.

Oppidan Investment Company is pumping more than $100 million into North Dakota’s Bakken region – including for two new apartment buildings in the area directly across from the airport, about a block off of the highway. The first of the two 36-unit apartment buildings is slated for completion in October, while the other will open early in 2013, Property Developer Jay Moore said. When Oppidan first started investigating opportunities, Moore said housing was the obvious choice.

“There was just a glaring need for housing,” he said. “That was what we heard over and over.”

Most of the company’s larger business – as much as 97 or 98 percent – is commercial, Moore said. But when developers saw the trailers parked at Wal-Mart on their first visit, they began to understand the residential gaps here.

“There definitely is a housing need and we’re just trying to solve that and help with some housing so we could fulfill some of the needs of the communities,” he said.

The five-acre space of land will be “maxed out” with units, though Moore said pricing will be equivalent to the area. With a high price point for every aspect of development in Williston, Moore said the rate will be standard to others in the area.

“The way we price rent is the cost of our construction project,” he said. “The land is expensive. Construction is expensive.”

“We’re a product of what’s going on in the entire area,” he said.

Still, Moore said the building set for an October opening is about 70 percent leased already.

Posted in: Press Releases