Halls Apartment property donated to Minot YWCA

MINOT, N.D. – Earlier this year, a devastating fire tore through a Minot apartment complex, displacing dozens and destroying a piece of the city’s history along the way.

Now community partners are coming together to ensure that the land where what’s left of the apartment sits goes to good use.

After months of speculation on what would be done with the now condemned Halls Apartment building, we now have an answer. The building was donated to the YWCA as a thank you for helping victims of the fire in February.

The late-February fire destroyed the more than 100-year-old building, leaving its residents without a home. Now, the land will be used to support those in need of shelter. On Thursday, the property owner donated it to the YWCA across the street, handing off the keys to Executive Director Meghan von Behren.

“To be able to not only have one space downtown but to have two spaces adjacent to each other is just going to help the YWCA immensely. And what that means for the community is we can just serve so many more people.,” said von Behren.

Howard Reeve with Flying S Real Estate said that donating it seemed like the right thing to do with the property.

“After the fire I heard that the YWCA had really helped out all the people that were victims of the fire. They gave them clothing and found places for them to live and I was just always impressed at how great that was,” said Reeve.

Von Behren and the rest of the YWCA team said they are excited to get the demolition process started as soon as possible.

“We are currently accepting bids and we are looking to raise the funds in order to tear down the building. It’ll be able $170,000 to tear it down so we are responsible for that and looking forward to hopefully gathering some donations,” said von Behren.

You can donate to the organization online here: http://www.ywcaminot.org/donate.html or by dropping off or mailing in checks or cash to their new office space at 9 1st Ave. SW. Minot, 58701.

Von Behren said that after demolition the space will be used as public parking to provide passive income to the organization while they fundraise to build a new building.