Former Muncie auto factory sites may get $13 million apartments

Commonwealth Development Corp., Fon du Lac, Wis., estimates it will spend $13 million on the brownfield projects at 1491 Kilgore Ave. and at nearby 1200 W. Eighth St.

Elsewhere in Indiana, the company's housing projects involve vacant factories that made blue jeans, Coco Wheats and musical instruments.

In Muncie, a former auto factory later occupied by Muncie Trade School would become a 36-unit apartment building called Fourteen 91 Lofts. Constructed in 1912, the now-vacant structure is a block west of the Kilgore Avenue entrance to Beech Grove Cemetery. 

Historic preservation income tax credits will make the project feasible, Commonwealth vice president Kevin McDonnell told the city-county plan commission recently.

The other project is new construction of a 35-unit townhouse apartment building at the northwest corner of Eighth and Elliott streets. Commonwealth obtained rental housing tax credits for that project through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.