A former Newton City official who co-owns a real estate development and consulting firm in Altoona wants to bring back to life over a dozen apartments on the east side of Newton’s downtown square. Brian Friedman says his company, Goldfinch Growth, is going after a Community Development Block Grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority, to help fund the renovation of the apartments at 104 First Avenue East.
“There are fifteen small apartments that have been vacant for almost 18 years. We are going to get those all completed. There are a lot of code compliance issues and there are life safety issues. We are going to fix those and get those apartments available for housing in Newton.”
Most of the apartments are above the Panda Garden restaurant, which has its entrance off First Street North, facing the Jasper County Courthouse…