Ribbon cutting for a 10-unit apartment building Tuesday marked completion of the vision for a couple with a combined age of nearly two centuries who wanted to offer as much housing as possible on their site between Phoenix and Medford where two duplexes were destroyed by the Almeda Fire.

Owners Walt Coppock, 96, and his wife Ruth, 100, attended Tuesday’s event on Northridge Terrace. “At our age, it was sort of a ridiculous thing to do,” said Ruth.

“They wanted to give back to the community and make sure that people had a place to stay,” said builder Cameron Erickson, who operates Erickson Construction with his wife, Meghann. No government fire relief assistance was used in the project.

“It is a milestone for us and them,” said Walt, recounting the couple’s original uncertainty about whether to develop the property or leave it to others.

“Walt and Ruth came to us originally simply to be the demolition contractor,” said Erickson. The firm was then hired to build the apartments. It’s the largest project that Erickson had undertaken so far in its 11 years operating in the Rogue Valley.

The two lots the duplexes sat on had to be combined into one to allow for the apartments. The duplexes likely dated from the 1980s. A significant amount of fill work was done on the sloping lot to accommodate the building.

On the ground floor of the new building are four two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath units of 1,200 square feet each. The second story has six one-bedroom, one-bath apartments of 500 to 600 square feet. The building totals 11,500 square feet.

The units on the ground floor are larger, because it was important to Ruth that the building would be able to accommodate families, said Nancy McClain, who designed the building and created the plans.

Each apartment has slight variations, made so that the maximum of 10 units could be put in place. Units are furnished with the latest trends, including black fixtures, stainless steel appliances and mini-split HVAC units for the open living space and each bedroom.

“We wanted to make sure it was up to par for today’s standards,” Erickson said. “We wanted something that people would love to come home to every day.”

Structural Solutions Engineering, the structural engineer on the project, had to include supports to allow for the open areas that combine kitchen, living and dining space. Each unit has access to an outdoor area, either a patio or deck.

Construction work started in October of 2021. With the pandemic slowing the supply chain and a tight labor force, the project took longer than it would have normally, Erickson said.

Electrical supplies, especially those sourced from outside the U.S., caused some delays. At some points, the contractor waited for the high cost of materials to decline.

Fire-resistant materials and construction methods were used, including cement board siding, a sprinkler system that has 12 to 15 heads in each unit, double-layer drywall between units, a thicker second floor and second-floor decks made of concrete. The sprinkler system is fed directly from an in-street main rather than using a storage tank.

Paving of the parking lot is scheduled for June 19. After that, the certificate of occupancy should be issued almost immediately, said Erickson. He estimates the building should have tenants by mid- to late-July, or perhaps earlier.

Amber and Jeff Ekwall of Lithia Property Management will oversee the Northridge Apartments and handle the rentals. The couple manage comparable two-bedroom, two-bath apartments in Talent that rent for $1,250 per month. They will need to study the market in Phoenix before setting rates for the new units.

“There’s a lack of one-bedroom apartments,” Walt said during a tour of the building.

Friend, neighbor and advisor Jim Wayne assisted the couple throughout the project. The Coppocks and Wayne live in Ashland.

“This was not a simple process by any means,” said Wayne. “But everything has worked out according to how we originally conceptualized it.”

A plaque by the entrance notes the effort by the couple to provide the housing.

Erickson’s son Parker, who turns 4 next week, participated in the ceremony. He accepted a commemorative sculpture portraying a worker with shovel and hard hat given by the couple to Erickson Construction. He also turned the key to open the building for tours by guests.

But Parker demurred when it came to wielding the oversize scissors, about half his height, to cut the ribbon, so dad took on that task.