Plans for new apartments at Hillcrest Motel underway

The Moscow Board of Adjustment on Tuesday approved a conditional use permit to allow the new owner of the Hillcrest Motel to renovate the building’s units into apartments.

Fortify Holdings LLC is seeking to purchase the Main Street building that was constructed in 1958. Current owners George and Roberta Branson are retiring after 27 years.

Fortify Holdings also purchased Idaho Inn on Pullman Road and is renovating those units into student housing called The Empire. That project should be completed this summer, according to Fortify Holdings co-regional manager Robert Jacobs.

Fortify Holding is proposing to renovate the Hillcrest Motel units into studio and one-bedroom apartments.

“It’ll be an exciting project and hopefully turn an old underperforming asset in the community into something that people are attracted to,” Jacobs said.

Residential uses are permitted within the motor business zone, but a conditional use permit is required for residential uses located on the ground floor, not behind a commercial use. Fortify Holdings requested a CUP specifically for the proposed 15 ground floor studio units directly adjacent to Main Street.

Jacobs said Fortify Holdings plans to upgrade the electrical system and plumbing at the Hillcrest Motel. It also plans to add kitchens and appliances to each unit, upgrade the exterior of the building, resurface the parking lot, add more parking spaces and improve the landscaping.

Co-regional manager Daniel Jacobs said the Hillcrest Motel project is expected to be completed February 2023.

For years, the Hillcrest Motel worked with Moscow nonprofit Sojourners’ Alliance and the Idaho Department of Corrections to provide low-income and emergency housing to residents. The remaining tenants were notified in September to vacate the motel and find new housing.

Moscow resident Jane Pritchett spoke about the need for affordable housing in Moscow during the public hearing portion of Tuesday’s meeting.

“We really need additional housing for low-income folks, and also for the older and single people that are on fixed incomes,” she said.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.