City officials have approved a group of resolutions to provide a potential affordable housing development with a tax abatement and help with financing the project.

The Columbus City Council voted to establish the location of Haw Creek Meadows as an economic revitalization area (ERA) and approve a 10-year real property tax abatement on a $14.4 million investment into the project.

Members also gave sign-off on a contribution the Columbus Redevelopment Commission approved for the project during a meeting on June 24. Redevelopment is providing an amount not to exceed $4.65 million from the city’s central tax-increment-financing (TIF) district to help with funding and the application process for federal low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC).

All three resolutions were approved 6-0 with council member Grace Kestler, D-at-large abstaining because she’s a member of the Thrive Alliance board. Council members Jerone Wood, D-District 3, and Jay Foyst, R-District 6, were absent.

Housing Partnerships Inc. (HPI), a non-profit that does business as Thrive Alliance, is planning a development that would be a combination of workforce family housing and housing for seniors to be built over two phases.

It would be located at the site of the former Columbus Health and Rehabilitation Center at 2100 Midway St. and reserved for those making 30%, 50% and 60% of area median income (AMI), Thrive Alliance officials said.

Phase one would see 64 workforce family housing units with a child care component and phase two would encompass 64 units for seniors.

The child care facility would be open to both residents and non-residents, Kevin Johnson, executive director of Housing Partnerships at Thrive Alliance, told the redevelopment commission in June.

The multifamily portion will consist of 20, 30 percent AMI units, 13, 50 percent AMI units and 31, 60 percent AMI units, HPI representatives have said.

With the approved tax abatement, HPI will pay $1.9 million in net property taxes over the next decade and the tax abatement will also save them the same figure, Director of Community Development Robin Hilber told the council.

The council’s incentive review committee, which reviews requests for tax abatements before they come to the full council, found HPI’s application was in substantial compliance.

Plans for the development also include a quarter-mile walking trail, a picnic area, a gazebo and a community garden. Johnson added they would also look to add a commercial space for something like a coffee shop “so the seniors would have a reason to come out of their units and break down social isolation.”

The project will likely be up for bids in the second quarter of next year and construction will start by the third quarter, according to Johnson. Build time is expected to take 15 to 18 months with leasing getting started in 2026 and reaching full occupancy in June of 2027.

Haw Creek Meadows would require demolition of the existing property on site and the construction of a new four-story building — the total project cost for phase one is expected to be $20.6 million, according to city officials.

HPI is applying for an award of 9% LIHTC in the amount of $13 million to help with financing, along with about $3.3 million in Regional Economic Acceleration & Development Initiative (READI) funds through the South Central Indiana Housing Community Development Corp. (SCIHCDC).

The application for LIHTC credits will be submitted by the end of this month and are awarded in November.

“The thing is, we can approve all of these things, if it passes tonight, and we’ve all done our part,” Council President Frank Miller, R-District 4, observed. “But still, if they don’t get that state credit, the project could possibly not happen. There’s parts that are out of our control basically.”

Even though the site of Haw Creek Meadows is technically not located within the boundaries of the city’s central TIF, the redevelopment commission came to the conclusion that the development would benefit and serve it, in part because Haw Creek Meadows would likely provide a place to live for many of downtown’s employees. HPI also had to be identified as a neighborhood development corporation in order to be eligible for TIF dollars, Pope said — redevelopment’s legal counsel reviewed HPI’s articles of incorporation and bylaws and found that to be the case.

How much TIF funds the redevelopment commission will actually end up contributing will depend on the amount of READI funds awarded, and will be reduced dollar for dollar on an award greater than $2 million. Because of this, the TIF dollars wouldn’t realistically go out until calendar year 2025, city officials said.

Executive Director of Administration Eric Frey, who also sits on the steering committee for READI’s South Central region, which includes Columbus, said the READI funds had been “basically approved” by the committee.

“The money has been approved, we just need to get the application submitted and uploaded, we have a letter basically saying that the regional committee supported this project and the funds will be allocated as soon as we get approved by IEDC (Indiana Economic Development Corporation).”
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