Four-story office building going up on Watford’s Main Street
By Amy Robinson
Farmer Staff Writer
Watford City officials joined principals from Triton Real Estate Investments in a ground-breaking ceremony held Oct. 15 for a new 40,000 square foot, four-story office and retail building located on Main Street in Watford City.
“We’re very excited about this,” said Jonathan Kalikow, one of the principals of Triton Real Estate Investments. “It’s our first office building in North Dakota. It’s our first, but definitely not our last.”
Triton also developed and owns Pheasant Ridge A & B in Watford City, both apartment complexes, in addition to several other housing and hotel developments throughout North Dakota.
The estimated cost of the building is approximately $15.5 million. Triton currently has no tenants for the new building.
“We want to start getting tenants when the steel starts going up,” said Kalikow. “The notion was that people in North Dakota were seeing too many unfinished projects taking place, and once we start building vertically, it will start looking and feeling ‘real’ to the local people. That’s when we will try and get tenants for the new building.”
The first floor of the new building will be suitable for both office and retail space, while the additional three levels will be appropriate for more office space.
Triton already plans on pouring concrete this month with a January time-frame for steel to begin being placed and construction to begin.
“One thing I wanted for this building was enough height and stature,” said Kalikow. “And part of the math in this project was getting a proper amount of parking, and we’ve equated that in.”
Triton has been coming to Watford City for the past three to four years and feels that they have a very good understanding of what this community needs and wants.
“We’ve been waiting for this kind of quality,” said Gene Veeder, executive director for the McKenzie County Job Development Authority. “For someone outside of North Dakota to come in and get what we want and to do that is huge. They are keeping the integrity of our Main Street.”
Triton, which is based out of New York, is currently focused on the North Dakota Bakken area and their mission is to seek to purchase, invest in, lend on and/or develop undervalued real estate in markets where it believes catalysts exist to unlock the real estate’s potential value.
“I’m very excited,” said Justin Voll, City Council member. “It will be fun to watch this happen.”
Triton hopes to open its new office and retail building in October of 2015. It will be located at 360 Main Street in Watford City.