MonumentalprojectforAthens’growth

By Casey Krautkramer

In the near future, people who work in the village of Athens will have the convenience of living there instead of commuting 20 minutes from Medford or half an hour from Marshfield or Wausau.

S.C. Swiderski of Mosinee on Thursday held its ceremonial groundbreaking for the 64 apartments it’ll construct on nearly eight acres of land at 713 Caroline Street, which is across the street from Athenian Living in the village of Athens. S.C Swiderski purchased the land from the owners of Athenian Living and excavation of the building site has begun.

Village of Athens president Randy Decker said S.C. Swiderski’s Athens project is a win for everyone involved.

“Athens has always been short on housing and these are nice apartments for anybody to live in,” Decker said. “It also provides a great tax base for the village. It’s just an all-around good deal for Athens.”

Jacqui McElroy, director of business development at S.C. Swiderski, said Athens resident Jessica Frahm arranged to have lunch with her in 2021 to discuss the village of Athens’ need for more housing.

McElroy noticed something unique about the Athens community while discussing the need for more housing with its businesses and residents.

“It was apparent there was something very special about Athens and what’s special is its people,” McElroy said. “The people in this community are very passionate about it and they really care about Athens, which makes this project even more meaningful for the community and for us at S.C. Swiderski.”

S.C. Swiderski has 31 apartment complexes throughout Wisconsin including the Hilltop Apartments in Edgar and Blue Stone Estates in Marathon. McElroy said there will be 14 different floor plans for the 64 apartments being con-

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Groundbreaking ceremony for S.C. Swiderski’s Athens apartments- Athens community members who attended Thursday’s S.C. Swiderski groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of new apartments pose for a photo with village of Athens leaders and S.C. Swiderski employees on the building site. The 10 people wearing white hard hats that used gold shovels to dig the ground during the ceremony who are pictured, from left to right, in the group photo are Kurt Rosenthal, project manager at S.C. Swiderski; Justin Frahm, senior project consultant at JSD Professional Services; Alison Baxter, CAD manager at SCS; Jessica Frahm, vice president/commercial loan officer at Forward Bank in Athens; Brent Gale, finance manager at S.C. Swiderski; Jacqui McElroy, director of business development at S.C. Swiderski; Randy Decker, Athens Village president; Jon Sawicky, facilities manager at S.C. Swiderski; Billie Hartwig, vice president of the Medford Chamber of Commerce and Gale Zettler, accounting manager at S.C. Swiderski.

STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER Development

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structed in Athens. She said there will be the following three different building types: the Bedford consists of two and three bedroom town houses with everything located on one level and twocar attached garages, the Huntington is two-story townhouses with attached garages and the Fulton has one, two and three bedroom options.

“We have a lot of choices from 700-square foot apartments up to 1,400 square foot apartments,” McElroy said. “We selected these buildings from our portfolio so we could build a multigenerational community in Athens to serve all types of people on this site and we really think it will be a great fit and success in this community.”

She said all of the 64 apartments in Athens will have private entrances. The monthly apartment rent includes lawn care, snow and trash removal, water, cable television and high-speed Internet. Renters will only need to pay for electricity each month, which should be a minimal amount of money because McElroy said the apartments are heated with a hydronic system instead of electric heat. She said the apartments are also pet friendly and there will be tons of green space around them.

People are already on a waiting list to rent the S.C. Swiderski apartments in Athens.

“We will open one building at a time so people will be able to move into them while we finish building on the rest of the site, and it will take a little over a year to complete everything,” McElroy said. “Some buildings will be open prior to the end of 2024 and and I think one of them will be open in early 2025. Since we anounced this project in the village of Athens, people have already been calling us to check in on it. We have over 30 people on a waiting list who we’ll keep informed during the construction process and they will be the first ones to select which apartments they want when they are ready.”