Construction has started on a 160-unit residential complex that is located on the corner of Harness Drive and Long Road in Montgomery City.

The name of the residential complex is Longview Meadows. Union-based ELS Properties is the developer of the project, which will include single-family residences and multi-family apartment buildings.

“We have started moving dirt,” said Ed Schmelz, the chief executive officer of ELS Properties. “We hope to start putting some buildings up in the next 30-60 days.”

The Planning and Zoning Board of the City of Montgomery held a public hearing on March 6 at Montgomery City Hall that talked about the final plans of the residential complex.

“It went well,” Schmelz said. “We went in front of the board a year ago when we had the property annexed into the city and we presented our plan then. Obviously, a couple of things have changed since we had our engineering work done, but everybody was very familiar with the project already. It seemed like there was good feedback. They had questions on some tree buffers that we were trying to keep for the neighbors and what style of units they’re going to be.”

Another public hearing was scheduled for March 20 during the City Council meeting at Montgomery City Hall.

The residential complex is just yards from the Uncle Ray’s potato chip factory on Harness Drive. Steve Etcher, a consultant of the Greater Montgomery County Economic Council, said he hopes the project will attract more workers to the Montgomery City area.

“I think it’s a tremendous opportunity for both the community and the developer,” Etcher said. “Obviously, there has been a lack of new high quality, yet affordable workforce housing that has been built in Montgomery City over the past decade. That lack really impeded our ability to attract workers into the community. Having something like that being constructed would really ducktail well with our efforts to grow the local employment base.”

Schmelz said there is no exact timetable on when the project will be completed.

“It kind of all depends on how fast they get leased up,” Etcher said. “If the demand is there, the total project length will probably be two and a half years, if everything goes well.”

Etcher said the city first talked about having a new residential complex about five years ago.

“We started by doing an in-depth housing analysis, which includes what’s here, what’s needed and what’s lacking,” Etcher said. “That led to a round table discussion with builders, bankers and developers in the community. The simple question is why is housing growth not organically occurring in Montgomery City. It was pretty easy to identify. There were some barriers to that and most of those barriers were the fact that there was a very hot market to the east that was really driving development and price points that weren’t fitting for Montgomery City.”

Founded in 2004, ELS Properties manages over 1,300 apartments, residential rental units and other properties in Missouri. Besides Union, it also serves other communities such as Hermann, Washington, Warrenton and Marthasville.
Schmelz said he first met Etcher over a year ago.

“He kind of turned me on into Montgomery City,” Schmelz said. “He said it was a growing area and it was short on housing.”

Etcher said the Montgomery City community will be excited whenever the residential project is finished.

“Once it’s available, people are going to see a lot of opportunities,” Etcher said. “They’re going to see people who may not consider Montgomery City a place of residence move into town. I think the businesses that are here are really going to appreciate that. The school district will at least be affordable. There will be quality places for the teachers and workers in the school district to live.”