Jill Schramm/MDN Susana Moncera sits in the living area of her remodeled apartment in Milton Young Towers Nov. 7.

Susana Moncera enjoys the modern look and feel of her newly remodeled apartment at the Milton Young Towers in downtown Minot.

“I love it since they remodeled it,” she said, pointing out the new creme-colored walls, easy-to-clean vinyl floors and bright LED lighting. Her favorite part, though, is the bathroom, with its new vanity sink and large shower.

“It’s comfortable. It’s like homey,” she said. “It’s really fresh.”

The 14-story Milton Young Towers recently underwent about a $6 million remodel that took about three years. The work is finished with the exception of remodeling main-floor public restrooms.

The project involved freshening the look of the apartments and common areas. Twenty-four apartments were converted from one-bedroom into 12 two-bedroom units, reducing the 221 original apartments by 12. With the change, the building has 28 two-bedroom units available. It also increased the number of accessible units from 11 to 13, with both new units having two bedrooms.

Owned and managed by the Minot Housing Authority (MHA), the landmark Milton Young Towers has been providing housing for low- to moderate income households for more than 50 years.

Moncera, who has lived at Milton Young since 2016, was among residents who moved to other apartments in the building while the remodeling occurred, returning when the work was completed on her unit. Some residents who transitioned to remodeled units had the option to remain there, but Moncera said she always liked her apartment and its ninth-floor view so was eager to move back.

Kerry Candrian, Capital Funds coordinator at Minot Housing Authority, said Milton Young is 60-70% occupied post-construction.

The remodeling project was conducted in six phases. Work included updates to flooring, mechanical systems, fire safety, power backup systems, waste stack replacement and high-efficiency plumbing and LED lighting. It included large windows on the main floor community and game rooms that add to the energy efficiency and climate comfort for residents.

The project started in April of 2020, funded in large part by $5 million from the city’s National Disaster Resilience grant.

“Without it, we couldn’t have done it,” Candrian said.

Apartment remodeling was completed this summer, with the final resident moved back into a finished apartment at the end of June.

Candrian said the project was to start in 2019 but hiccups with contracts led to a delay. In the end, he said, MHA and residents experienced a great relationship during the construction period with Rolac Contracting and all the subcontractors, of which all were local but one who did some minor work. Also, when the project started, SRT contacted MHA to come in and install fiber optic cable throughout the building.

The modernization of the building was needed, Candrian said. The building had seen little remodeling since it opened in 1972. The only major changes over the years were new kitchen cabinets and kitchen plumbing installed in the apartments between 2001-05 and apartment window upgrades in 2009-11.

The community room also received a kitchen update and expansion shortly before the NDR work, thanks to a grant from Gate City Bank.

Candrian said additional work needs to be done in the building. The original elevators should be replaced, which could be a $500,000 project. There also is a need to replace cast-iron pipe that is failing.

Just making the changes over the past few years has provided a tremendous boost for residents, though.

“We knew we did the right thing when we took some tenants into their new units. They’d have tears in their eyes because they’d never had anything like that,” Candrian said.