County officials on Thursday got their first look at the results of a months-long housing study spearheaded by Knox County Indiana Economic Development.
It didn’t, however, come with many surprises. In fact, associates with Thomas P. Miller and Associates, a firm in Indianapolis, confirmed what many here have long thought — that Knox County lacks mid-range homes, ones between $100,000 and $300,000 as well as quality rental units.
But with the proof now firmly in hand, elected officials are hopeful for change.
“There was nothing there that was surprising to us,” said Vincennes Mayor Joe Yochum. “But the great thing is that we have this information now, so we can market that and, hopefully, get investors and developers interested.”
Bicknell Mayor Thomas Estabrook said the results of the study, too, offered promise.
“I’m glad we now have a guiding document that tells us what we already thought we knew,” he said. “And the next big thing is to figure out how to execute the solutions they presented to us.”
Lindsay Bloos, a senior project consultant with Thomas P. Miller and Associates, alongside Matt Rueff, its former director of economic development and community resiliency, led the hour-long presentation and discussion inside Vincennes University’s newly-renovated Learning Resource Center.
Chris Pfaff, CEO of Knox County Indiana Economic Development, formerly KCDC, months ago began soliciting help from local elected officials and entities like VU, Good Samaritan Hospital and the Vincennes Redevelopment Commission to split the cost of the study — the goal being to prove — or disprove — the long-time theory that the local housing market is suffering, specifically in terms of mid-range homes, and to identify ways to spur growth.
A couple dozen people, many of them community leaders and elected officials, gathered at VU to hear the results, which were based on everything from census data to interviews done with stakeholders right here in Knox County.
Bloos told the group they talked with “developers, Realtors, loan officers, schools, government officials, non-profit organizations, key employers and their employees” in an effort to paint a complete picture of the housing market in, not just Vincennes, but all of Knox County.
The study found that the county’s inventory of quality housing is slight — and getting slighter all the time.
While mid-range housing and quality rentals does seem to be suffering the most, the study found that Knox County, in general, has a lack of all kinds of housing, from modest to expensive.
The housing stock here, too, is aging, with 91% having been constructed prior to 1990, and while much of Vincennes’ charm comes from its historic homes, even those just 30-40 years old come with challenges as many of them are in need of everything from relatively minor, aesthetic updates to major upgrades.
Even the average number of home listings per month has dropped significantly, from 160 in 2016 down to an average of just three so far this year.
But the study wasn’t all bad news.
Knox County, Bloos and Rueff said, have many strengths — strengths that could go a long way in enticing builders.
Vincennes, with its rich history, has a lot of character, a thriving downtown, and they were impressed with how “tight-knit” and supportive its people and businesses — and especially its public school corporations — were of one another.
Knox County, too, sees as many as 4,000 people driving in each day to work; many of those interviewed by Thomas P. Miller and Associates said they would live here if they could find the kind of housing they wanted.
“There is an opportunity to attract and retain those individuals if they could find affordable housing here,” Bloos said, adding that other drawbacks for prospective buyers were a lack of utilities, specifically high-speed internet, and even things like daycare facilities.
But Rueff reiterated that the “demand is there” from those who are still commuting from out of town.
“There are people driving from Evansville because they can’t find a place to rent,” he said. “And there is real opportunity to capture some of that market.”
Bloos and Rueff, now a developer himself, also suggested multiple sites all over Knox County, both those with the necessary infrastructure already in place and others that would take a longer-term, larger investment.
They pointed to an old school in Edwardsport that, much like Clark’s Crossing in Vincennes years ago, could be redeveloped into quality, unique apartments.
In Bicknell, they identified a 3-acre site along Cedar Street on the south side of the city as well as downtown, calling it an area ripe for the development of mixed-use, meaning both residential and commercial space.
In Vincennes, they tapped a more than 50-acre site off Old Bruceville Road, an area an existing, local developer is reportedly already looking at as well as about 65 acres on Bierhaus Boulevard, an area close to “vibrant brick and mortar businesses,” like Hobby Lobby and Marshals and the new Outback Steakhouse as well as schools with the Vincennes Community School Corp.
Suggested for that area were homes in the $350,000 to $450,000 range, much higher than that targeted mid-range market, but Thomas P. Miller and Associates indicated that a higher range is needed as well to “attract and retain top level employees.”
The firm, too, identified neighborhoods close to both VU and Good Samaritan, areas in need of infill homes or historic rehabilitation, as well as the continued development of downtown loft spaces.
In addition, they suggested the Old National Bank building on North Third Street, which will be vacated next year, as an ideal location for a small, boutique-style hotel.
Downtown Vincennes, Rueff said, has the kind of “richness and vibrancy that can attract those kinds of investors.”
They also suggested “strategies,” like a Good Landlord program, one modeled after an initiative in Huntingburg where landlords, instead of being penalized, are rewarded for complying with local rental ordinances.
And they pointed to the use of state historic tax credits — the same tax credits used by local developer Andy Myszak to build both Clark’s Crossing and Riverview Lofts — as well as other state and federal grant sources and even Tax Increment Finance Zones as ways to finance eligible housing projects.
Also on the list was the state’s new PreservINg Main Street program, an arm of the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs’ Community Development Block Grant program aimed at bolstering Indiana’s main streets.
“Don’t lose those buildings,” Rueff said of Main Street. “That’s who you are.
“Do you know how many cities wish they had such lofts? That character, it goes back generations. You go back further than anybody.”
Pfaff said his hope is that the study — more than 100 pages in its entirety — can be used as a tool to entice developers, confirming to them that, if they build here, the homes will likely sell.
“We want to educate that there is a demand for housing, both in quantity and quality,” Pfaff told the group.
The group, too, briefly brainstormed ways to incentivize developers to buy and flip homes in the Historic District, believing it a likely way to bridge the gap found in that mid-range market.
The lowest-cost projected home included in the study was still $150,000, as Rueff said it costs at least that to build even the most modest of new homes these days.
Renovating an existing home could be less, but it will take elected officials working with those in the private sector, specifically financial institutions and developers, to find ways to help fund those projects.
Yochum said he looked forward to reading more into the study, finding ways to get it into the hands of developers and investigating some of the state and federal funding opportunities mentioned within its pages.
Estabrook agreed. This study is the way forward they’ve all been waiting on.
“Housing, it’s the thing,” he said, “not just for the county and Vincennes but in Bicknell, too.
“As a county and its cities, this is going to be the governing document. This is the next thing that will help us turn the corner and move forward.”
Copyright ©2024 Vincennes Sun Commercial