Construction in Iola’s Cedarbrook Third Addition is moving forward steadily, bringing the community closer to a goal of expanding housing options.
Three more homes are being built in the subdivision on Iola’s north side of town.
Lakeview Investment Properties — an LLC owned by Blake Boone and his mother, Jennifer Chester — purchased all 22 residential lots in the subdivision in November 2023 with plans to develop the area along the north edge of town. Since then, the City of Iola has invested $1.7 million to extend utilities to 16 of the lots. The six remaining parcels, located where the subdivision curves back to the northeast, will require infrastructure improvements paid for by Boone and Chester.
The purchase agreement set the price at $1,000 per lot, with Boone and Chester agreeing to pay the city an additional $6,500 for each of the 16 serviced lots as they sell. They have 10 years to complete the development or the property will revert to city ownership.
Work on the first home in the addition was completed last December, and it sold before construction was even finished — a sign of the demand Boone hopes will continue. Now, three more homes are taking shape: a 1,995-square-foot, four-bedroom home with three baths and a finished basement at 17 Archer Dr., which has already been sold; a 1,698-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home at 15 Archer Dr.; and a 1,250-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath home at 504 McGuire Dr. Boone expects all three to be completed by Jan. 1.
“Everything is going pretty well,” Boone said. “Any hiccups we’ve run into have just been minor things.”
The developers are also raising the bar on quality, said Boone. “We are trying to up our game and make these houses a little more high-end,” he said. “That’s our goal. We want to build houses that are better than anything else you can buy.”
Boone noted future construction will depend on market demand. “If we can continue to sell them, we’ll keep building them,” Boone said. If all goes as planned, Cedarbrook Third Addition will eventually add more than 20 new homes to Iola’s housing market.
