The wait may be over to resolve this city's critical shortage of rental home units. For the first time in 25 years, there will be two large apartment complexes built in Williston. The former Cimmaron Trailer Court area, silent for almost 15 years after it was emptied in the last oil bust, could be the Phoenix that triggers growth.

The Marcil Group Inc. of Fargo and the Valley Development Group of Valley City emerged from a 2 1/2-hour executive session meeting with the Williston City Commission Thursday to announce they are teaming to build two 36-unit apartment complexes.

In the long-term on the horizon, they envision a mix of multi-unit housing complexes, town homes, single family homes and light commercial sites. Pending final plans, they said the multi-family residential construction could be up to 600 units in size.

Waiting lists for apartments has been hovering over 100 people for the past two years for what officials are finally terming an oil boom in the Williston Basin.

Work on the apartments, north of the Hagan Elementary School, is slated to begin this fall, and be completed sometime in the spring of 2008. INCENTIVES

When the public portion of the meeting resumed, Williston City Commissioners approved a series of incentives for the developers. These include:

Help with some gap financing by providing a zero-interest loan of $360,000 for 10 years.The loan would be given from STAR Fund money, drawn from the city's first one-cent city sales tax revenue.

The commission will seek financial backing from the Bank of North Dakota.

Will take the old Cimmaron Heights trailer park off the market until April 15 to develop a long-range master plan for the property. The city acquired ownership of the trailer court after developers in the early 1990s could not pay on special assessments.

Seek local commitment from financial institutions here in financing for developers. Board members are confident there are institutions willing to support the project. With local financing, they feel that will entice the Bank of North Dakota and the state to assist.

Sell three lots for the apartment buildings at $10,000 a lot, which would be below market value.

Approach the Tax Abatement Committee for a break. In their proposals, the two developers would make a payment of $1 in lieu of taxes for the first five years. The next five years, pay taxes of $25,000 per year.

BREAKING THE ICE

Williston City Commission President Ward Koeser said he hoped Thursday's actions would "break the ice" in drawing other developers to build apartments in the community.

"I am optimistic that this will be the catalyst that will take us into the next year, and that we'll have good growth," Koeser related at a news conference following the lengthy executive session.

"We believe that once these apartments are built, the next ones are going to appraise better. ... We did believe the first one in 20-plus years was going to take some specific action," he said.

"We've had a Housing Committee that has met over the last two years. They felt the same way that somehow, we just needed to break the ice to get the first unit built."

He acknowledged that developers have been weary about building apartments.

"The appraisals are not going to go up overnight. That had to happen; we had to have apartments that were charging higher rents. That's what your appraisals are based on."

LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT

"We were not interested in coming to Williston to do 72 units. What we're really interested in is a master development plan that would provide up to 600 units of housing that are multi-dimensional," said George Gaukler of the Valley Development Group. "There's some single family. There's some town homes. There's some multi-unit. There may be some industry housing. Then you mix it together in such a way for club houses and fitness centers. They want amenities for a quality of lifestyle for where they live.

"We want to get away from the whole 'barracks' idea. That's not sustainable in the long-term." added Michael Marcil, CEO of the Marcil Group Inc. He echoed to realtors in the audience that once valuations are set, more developers will come to Williston.

Gaukler has been in the business for 40 years, and has built some 4,000 apartments in his tenure, including units here.

Marcil has partnered with the Valley Development Group to build 1,200 apartments in the last 2 1/2 years. "We're doing 300 to 500 apartments a year," said Marcil. He added they specialize in rural markets, and have been successful at it. He said his business likes strong, stable communities like Williston that lacks developers.