A developer with a reputation for renovating rundown apartments in Warren County has announced intentions to build a 234-unit apartment complex in Wright City, and is seeking early buy-in from the city government.

The proposed apartments would be located just north of the Bell Road/Westwoods Road intersection, situated on the east side of the road. Adam Pollard, of Pollard Properties, outlined preliminary plans for the apartments during a Feb. 24 discussion with the Wright City Board of Aldermen.

“We’re putting this idea in front of you to get an idea of how you feel about it before we invest additional dollars in the due diligence process,” Pollard told the aldermen.

Pollard said the complex would contain a mix of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, along with a few dozen townhomes. Rents would range from roughly $900 to $1,400.
The grounds would also have a dog park for residents and other green space, Pollard added.

Pollard Properties owns several small apartment complexes in Wright City and Warrenton, and has observed extreme need in the housing market for more rental units, Pollard said.

“If you look around for somewhere to rent right now, as of today the only listing in Wright City is a three-bedroom, two-bath home for $1,895,” Pollard explained. “To me, that’s astronomical in Wright City. We have houses in Dardenne Prairie and O’Fallon that rent for less than that.”

Pollard said the target market for his company’s apartment tenants are “young professionals” who are just beginning their careers and are looking for a quality place to live.

Mayor Michelle Heiliger agreed that such housing is a core need that Wright City doesn’t have enough of.

“In this community, we need people to put down roots and stay here,” Heiliger commented, lamenting that young people just getting out of college or starting professional careers don’t have any place to live in Wright City. “We tell them, ‘If you want to live in an apartment, if you don’t want to buy a house, then you need to go live somewhere else.’ And that’s what they do: They pack up, they go live someplace else, then they put roots down there instead.”

Senior residents who no longer wish to care for a house also don’t have enough living options, the mayor added.

However, Heiliger said new apartments would only be an asset for the community if they are well managed, well maintained, and prevented from becoming a nuisance.

In this regard, the Pollard company has earned a good reputation in the past few years. Pollard has taken over and rehabilitated apartment buildings on Westwoods Road in Wright City, and on Arlington Way in Warrenton. Both complexes have since received high compliments from local city officials about how much they’ve been improved. Wright City Police Chief Tom Canavan said his officers have had far fewer calls at the apartments on Westwoods since Pollard took over management.

One other aspect of the project discussed with aldermen was street access to the proposed Bell Road apartments. To meet public safety requirements, Pollard wants at least two access points in and out of the site. He proposed one connection to Bell Road on the west side, and then one or two road connections on the east side, where the apartment complex would abut Wright City’s future park and sports complex that’s currently under development.

Part of the plan for that park is to extend Wildcat Drive all the way through the park from south to north. Pollard proposed paying for and completing the first section of that road extension, providing access for the apartment complex on the west side of the road, and for future baseball fields on the east side of the road. 

Alderman Don Andrews said he saw two potential challenges with this plan. First, it could cause traffic conflicts with the parking lot for the baseball fields, which would be directly across from the apartments. Secondly, allowing the apartments to use Wildcat Drive could interfere with the city’s ability to close the park at night, if they choose to do so.

“Don’t get me wrong: That’s my only concern. I love the idea,” Andrews commented.

Pollard said all of the preliminary plans could be changed to best fit the needs of the development, the park and the city. City leaders agreed to engage in further discussions with the developer. No official vote on the project was taken.