After more than a year, three downtown streets restricted by construction have been reopened around the Rise on 9th apartment building at Locust and Ninth streets.
Construction of the 10-story building, which began April 12, 2016, blocked or restricted parts of Ninth, Tenth and Locust streets.
During construction, the north half of Locust between Ninth and Tenth streets was closed. Parking was unavailable on the south side of the street to allow two-way traffic. The street is now open, with parking available on both sides of the street.
The building has 174 apartments as well as fitness and common areas, said Shane Creech, building and site development manager for the city of Columbia.
Employees working in the leasing office of Rise on 9th would not say when the building would open or how many apartments were still available as of Friday afternoon.
City officials confirmed that a certificate of occupancy had been issued, so residents may legally live there.
In February 2016, Fields Holdings LLC bought the land to develop into an apartment complex, which resulted in 20 students being evicted from thhe James Condominium, according to previous Missourian reporting.
The purchase generated “calls for city departments to be more transparent when they calculate capacity of downtown roads and utilities.”
In addition to James Condominium, space housing Britches Clothing and Quinton’s Bar & Deli were also torn down to make room for the apartment building. Closing the streets and sidewalks around the construction site sparked concern at a City Council meeting last March.
This is not the only large construction project that has closed downtown streets this summer. The Flat Branch sewer project — which involves installing a new sewer line, among other improvements — has closed parts of Sixth, Elm and Ninth streets. Columbia Utilities spokeswoman Patricia Hayles said she hopes the construction will move east beyond Hitt Street before the start of the fall semester at MU. Classes begin Aug. 21.
Construction for the new Brookside apartment building at 6th and Elm streets is also nearing completion, Creech said, but he did not have an expected date for reopening streets surrounding the site.