Susan and Ken Nyhusmoen moved 18 times before they finally found a place they wanted to call home: Risor of St. Louis Park, a 55-and-older apartment community that opened in 2023. Now the 81-year-old couple, who live on a fixed retirement income, are bracing for new utility charges that could threaten their ability to stay when their lease ends in June 2027.
Risor management plans to end its bundled rent-and-utilities billing and will charge up to 300 tenants separately for gas and electricity, along with a formula-based charge for water, sewage and trash, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. The new charges begin for leases signed after September 1, 2026, and will not apply to renters enrolled in affordable housing programs. Susan Nyhusmoen said moving again would be difficult and upsetting, and the couple wants to remain at Risor.
More than 100 tenants attended a meeting at Risor of St. Louis Park about the new payment structure, per the same account. Roers Companies, the Plymouth-based real estate investor and management group that owns and manages the property, said it changed direction because of rising utility costs. The company plans to phase in a traditional utility-payment structure and has properties across the United States, but it did not identify the two additional Risor buildings, also managed by Roers, that will add utility fees under the new structure.
A Portfolio Built on Downsizing Seniors
Roers launched its Risor brand in 2021 to target middle-income active seniors looking to downsize from single-family homes without moving into full-service care, shortly after selling its previous five-property Havenwood senior living portfolio for $160 million in 2022. The company’s 172-unit Risor of Apple Valley, built for $43.7 million and opened in October 2022, became the blueprint for later properties in Bloomington, Maple Grove and St. Louis Park…