Upscale apartments planned for Amazon neighborhood in Ogden

Daniel Thomas Jr. began his career in real estate by flipping houses, and then he transitioned to building houses.

Now, with a townhome development nearing completion in Chili, he’s ready to embark on his next venture: an upscale apartment community on Manitou Road in the town of Ogden.

Thomas, through his company, Taouk Development, has plans to build from the ground up a 3 ½-story, 26-unit apartment building at 2715 Manitou Rd. Named “The Dens,” the project will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom units, with rent projected to be between $1,500 and $1,800 a month.

While there is an abundance of garden-style apartment communities in the Gates Center/Chili Center area, Thomas believes there’s a need for something a little fancier.

The success of the townhome endeavor, Mayflower Estates, reinforced that belief.

“We’re pulling in really good tenants with Mayflower Estates and we’ve listened to the crowd,” Thomas said. “We’ll have a modern contemporary look. We’ll have higher-end appliances, cabinets and countertops and that’s what people like.

“And you tend to get better dollar value per square foot with higher-end, luxury apartments.”

If the address of The Dens sounds a little familiar, that’s because the newly constructed — but for-now dormant — Amazon fulfillment center sits across the street at 2600 Manitou Rd. That Amazon project, along with another Amazon venture barely a half-mile away at 90 Shepard Rd. in Ogden, prompted Thomas to proceed with this development plan.

He has owned the five-acre lot since 2017 but took his time deciding on what concept would be most appropriate. He considered townhouses but settled on upscale apartments. During the period of inactivity, he said other developers inquired, wondering if he wanted to sell.

“With all the Amazon talk, that sparked us to get moving on it,” he said. “It felt like this was the right time. The land has been sitting there empty for 50 years and this will really complement the area.”

Thomas, 37, is the sole member of Taouk Development. The project has a price tag of approximately $5.3 million.

John Sciarabba, president and CEO of LandTech Surveying & Planning, handled the engineering delicacies of fitting the building and ancillary features onto the available land and James Fahy Design was the architect.

Of course, every project takes months and months of site approvals and plan modifications. Thomas is somewhat amazed Amazon needed less than two years to get from property acquisition to completion of construction on a 2.6-millon-square-foot fulfillment center.

But he’s also thankful for the assistance provided by Dan Wolf, highway superintendent and commissioner of public works for the town of Ogden, and Brian Thompson, the town’s building inspector, in navigating the approval process for The Dens.

The plan is for construction to begin this month.

Amazon is expected to begin operations at the fulfillment center in the first quarter of 2023, with approximately 1,000 to 1,200 employees in the facility when at capacity. That played a part in the development idea.

“Our rent may not work for the average Amazon worker, but it would for managers,” he said.

He said corporate entities have leased units at Mayflower Estates for management personnel new to the area. That 55-unit Taouk community is just over three miles away on Springflower Drive in Chili.

“I really think this will be an A-plus project,” Thomas said.

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