An informal conversation on the floor of the Iowa Senate last year has finally led to Scheideman’s vision becoming reality.

A recently dug foundation just south of 10th Avenue North not far from the eastern city limits marks the spot where the first of 70 single-family attached homes will be built in the new Gypsum Creek Crossing neighborhood on ground once farmed by Bill and Eva Scheideman.

The housing area will encompass about 33 acres south of 10th Avenue South and east of North 32nd Street. A four-acre park will be located in the middle of the development.

Two new north-south streets to be called 35th and 36th streets will be built. Also, Seventh Avenue North and Ninth Avenue North will be extended into the neighborhood.

-Submitted graphics
Sample front and rear elevations are shown in these illustrations for homes at Gypsum Creek Crossing, an emerging neighborhood on the east side of Fort Dodge.

“It’s a fantastic location next to the aquatic park, near the schools and near all of the retail,” said Russ Bertrand, president of RJ Tide Development, of Sioux City. “There are just a lot of benefits to that location.”

Bertrand said his firm’s plan for the area isn’t much different from what Scheideman proposed.

“We’re not that dissimiliar from that original plat,” he said.

Keely Anderson, a Fort Dodge native now living in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, is very familiar with the site. She is a granddaughter of the Scheidemans, and she grew up in a house on 10th Avenue North near the property.

She said her grandparents had owned the land since 1946.

She recalled that her grandfather approached city officials in the 1970s about developing the site. In 1975, she said, he created a plat that showed streets and lots for homes.

“The city said at that time there was no need for housing in that area,” Anderson said.

The proposal was then shelved and largely forgotten.

But in 2017, one conversation led to a rebirth for it.

State Sen. Rick Bertrand, a Republican from Sioux City, was sitting at his desk and talking on the phone with his brother, Russ Bertrand.

During that conversation, Fort Dodge was mentioned. That caught the attention of state Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge, who sits right in front of Rick Betrand in the Senate chamber.

After the phone call, Kraayenbrink and Rick Bertrand talked. Kraayenbrink recalled that his fellow senator asked if Fort Dodge was in need of any new homes.

“I said, ‘Oh, yeah, they need a lot of housing there,'” Kraayenbrink said.

He later set up a meeting between the Bertrands, representatives of the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance, and city officials.

“It just kind of blossomed from there,” Kraayenbrink said.

Russ Bertrand said Kraayenbrink was key in bringing RJ Tide Development to Fort Dodge.

“I really give Tim a lot of the credit for dragging us over there,” he said.

He said he first visited the site in March or April of 2017. The plan was publicly introduced to the city’s Plan and Zoning Commission on Feb. 27, 2018.

Construction started this year and is expected to continue over the next eight to nine years.

“We’re going to go gangbusters,” Bertrand said.

He added that his company is using all local contractors.

Each unit in an attached home will range from 1,323 square feet to 1,650 square feet.

“It provides a good amount of space at a price tag people can afford to buy,” Betrand said.

The selling price of each unit will range from $225,000 to $290,000, depending on the size and whether or not the basement is finished.

Bertrand said the Iowa Workforce Housing Tax Credit, which is equal to 20 percent of his company’s investment, is essential to the development of Gypsum Creek Crossing.

“This project would not be moving forward but for the Iowa Workforce Housing Tax Credit,” he said.