The Murphy's Creek Townhomes complex held its grand opening and open house Thursday.

The project took the efforts of many different groups, such as Apex of Austin, the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, the Minnesota Housing Fund, and the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

"It's a marvelous blend of public and private organizations working together and it's been very successful," Austin Mayor Bonnie Rietz said.

HRA Executive Director Kermit Mahan commended Apex for its efforts by explaining, "the genesis of this came out of Apex, which put $2.5 million on the table for the project."

The complex has 88 townhomes and all but one of those units have been rented. The last one will be filled at the beginning of August. J. Michael Podawiltz, of the Podawiltz Development Corporation, which also contributed to the development of Murphy Creek, said he was "proud to be associated with it. It's a nice cross-section of individuals and Austin is very fortunate to have such a blended community of seniors and young people."

Carla Berg and her sister, Mona Narveson, live in one of the apartments and are very pleased with the diversity of the community. "We like the children out here," Berg said.

"We have the darlingest little 2-year-old living next door and we love to feed him cookies," Narveson said, smiling. "We just love it here. We love the privacy, the wonderful neighbors; the whole atmosphere is wonderful."

"We can lock the door and go on vacation and not worry about anything," Berg added.

"After owning a home for 50 years, that's a relief," Naverson said.

Amanda L. Rohde can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at :mailto:amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com