WINDOW ROCK—The Capital Vue Apartment Complex is rising.

The new public rental units will house 60 Navajo families when completed and features studio apartments, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom floorplans.

The 14 apartment buildings are bi-level, two-story structures with two studio apartments on the top floor and one or two-bedroom apartments on the ground level.

Souers Construction from Albuquerque, N.M. was awarded the construction contract and crews of construction workers broke ground in August 2024 after receiving the notice to proceed on March 18, 2024.

Nathan Wilke, project manager for Souers Construction, said the utilities are in the ground and that his crews are working on the waterline, which will be coming in from about a mile away in the north and from the south to supply the subdivision.

“Moving forward, we’ll be working on retaining walls and all the staircases. Eventually, we’ll be getting this road put in,” he said with a chuckle.

The concrete pads have been completed, and the framing is almost finished. For people driving past the post office in Window Rock, you can easily spot the vertical construction that is taking place to the north.

Wilke said the biggest challenge his crew faced was the earthwork involved because the project is located on top of a hill.

“NHA is very easy to work with, our schedules and meetings are always when they say they are and we haven’t had a problem.”

“For the infrastructure here, we’ve been here for three months, moving dirt and putting pipe into the ground,” he said. “A lot of the pipes are going down 20-feet, so it’s a lot of excavation.”

The sewer system is complete and only one waterline remains to be completed. Wilke’s crew will be installing gas and electric connections into the ground next, followed by the storm drainage system.

As many as 100 construction workers have been onsite to complete the project and Wilke said his crew is about 100 percent Navajo, except for the electrical.

The relationship between NHA and Souers Construction dates to the 1980s, when Butch Souers established the relationship with the tribally designated housing entity.

“My uncle started this relationship and we’re grateful enough to keep it going and we plan to keep this relationship,” Wilke said.

He commended the NHA Project Managers – Ted Jensen, Edison Johnson, Terri Silversmith – for being easy to work with and staying on top of the projects they’ve been tasked with.

Jensen is overseeing the 60 units at Capital Vue, Johnson is overseeing the 46 public rental units being constructed in Ojo Amarillo, N.M. and Silversmith led the 21 new Mariano Lake housing units that will be turned over to families on Jan. 31, 2024.

All three projects are currently being constructed by Souers Construction.

“NHA is very easy to work with, our schedules and meetings are always when they say they are and we haven’t had a problem,” Wilke said.

The Capital Vue Apartment Complex is a departure from NHA housing construction of the past and will feature modern flourishes such as 10-ft. ceilings, porches, island kitchens with cabinets, washer and dryer hookups, and bedrooms with views of the surrounding landscape.

Wilke said he’s looking forward to the grand opening for the new apartment complex and said the units are going to be “very modern and very cool.”

Daniel Plummer, superintendent for Souers Construction, is overseeing the crew at the Capital Vue Apartment Complex.

He’s been employed with Souers since 2008, after he started out as laborer when he was still in high school.

“I’ve been framing for this company fore more than 10 years. I’ve been here every day, I provide my own tools, my own trailer,” Plummer said. “I’ve just been going wherever the company tells me to go and I got promoted in-house.”

He said all the framing for the first level units has been completed and that his crew will be framing the second-floor units for the next week or so. It was the fifth week of framing for the Window Rock crew.

“We’re shorthanded, we had to send some workers to Ojo Amarillo to help catchup another project. This project should be completed in February 2026,” Plummer said.

People are excited about the new construction and Plummer is inundated with phone calls daily about how they could apply for housing.

“I tell them that’s all NHA,” he said. “NHA is important, they provide the housing for the Navajo people. Keep applying for housing, that way we’ll get more projects like this for the Navajo Nation.”

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