Re-Cap Of Oppidan In The Bakken

The Star-Tribune is reporting:

Joe Ryan was certain he had a solid sales pitch.

His company, Minnetonka-based Oppidan Investment Co., has built shopping centers nationwide. And Watford City, a fast-growing locale on the western edge of North Dakota’s oil-rich Bakken region, has struggled to provide grocery stores and restaurants as its population surges.

On paper, the two seemed like a match.

But the town planner “looked at my pretty pictures and said, ‘Joe, I could meet with guys like you all day long. Show me something.’ ”

With that blunt-but-earnest challenge, Oppidan stepped outside of its comfort zone. The firm, known for its work with retailers such as Cub Foods, Gander Mountain, Goodwill and Orchard Supply, built an apartment complex, of all things, in nearby Williston.

“We really needed to put our money where our mouth was,” Ryan said recently. “It was so obvious that they desperately needed housing” with the influx of new residents and workers in the region.

Oppidan’s 36-unit apartment complex, called the Gables, leased up so quickly that a second Gables opened earlier this year. Then, in June, the company opened Pheasant Ridge Apartments, a 42-unit complex in Watford City.

“That was the fastest way for us to prove that we were for real,” Ryan said. Since then, Oppidan has completed $150 million in retail and residential projects in Dickinson, Minot, New Town, Stanley, Tioga and Williston. More than 1 million square feet of commercial projects have been done in just over two years.

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