Sixteen local projects are still waiting to see if they will receive any part of the $35 million awarded to Henry County and its regional partners.
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) is currently going over regional submissions for a second round of Indiana’s Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative funds, referred to as READI 2.0.
Three Henry County projects looking for READI 2.0 funds are concerned with local housing.
The Courier-Times has previously reported on the planned Samuel Hall Estates project and the two-part New Castle Residential Housing Development.
A third project hopes to bring new housing directly to downtown New Castle.
Annex rehabilitation
The Henry County Commissioners agreed in March to sell the former Henry County Courthouse Annex Building on South 12th Street to the New Castle Redevelopment Commission (RDC) for $21,500.
The private developer Iron Men Properties is interested in putting 12 studio and one-bedroom apartments in the three-story brick building.
Joe Blake, owner of Iron Men Properties, said his company is prepared to do a multi-family housing project in New Castle.
The company’s goal is providing housing opportunities in county seats to be a part of downtown revitalization.
“In communities like New Castle, there’s not a shortage of retail space,” Blake said. “Our niche is bringing people into downtown to use the revitalized businesses.”
Iron Men Properties received funding from the first round of READI to do a 68-unit housing project in Delphi, Indiana, a community of about 3,000.
Blake is originally from Anderson and still has family in East Central Indiana. He is familiar with New Castle.
“We’re prepared to do a project there at the Annex Building,” he said. “It’d be good for downtown.”
Blake said the downtown New Castle project depends on READI 2.0 funding and other funding sources.
“The economic viability of a project in today’s environment requires public support to make it happen,” he said.
Corey Murphy, president and CEO of New Castle-Henry County Economic Development Corp., is one of the county’s representatives on the East Central Indiana Regional Partnership (ECIRP) steering committee for READI 2.0 projects.
Murphy said Historic Tax Credits could be a tool for rehabilitating the Annex Building. Another possible tool that could help the project is a developer-backed bond paid back through tax increment financing (TIF).
“(In a TIF,) a substantial portion of the property taxes paid on the improved building could be returned to the developer in the form of a bond payment,” Murphy said.
It would be up to the New Castle City Council and New Castle RDC to offer a TIF incentive for the project.
Waiting on IEDC announcement
State officials have not yet announced which individual projects will receive READI 2.0 funding.
Henry County’s representatives considered 16 local projects in total and submitted the top five to ECIRP earlier this month.
Local officials did not publicly announce which of the Henry County projects moved on to the regional selection process. However, the Henry County Council pledged $2 million in Food & Beverage Tax funds as match money for whichever of the 16 local projects were selected.
County council approves up to $2 mil in READI match
The ECIRP steering committee, including elected officials from each of the eight partner-counties, considered and ranked the top projects from each county this month and submitted those recommendations to the IEDC for final funding approval.
ECIRP Vice President of Strategy & Operations Caitlin Hancock said the regional group will not share the final list of submitted projects until the IEDC approves the funding requests for all the READI 2.0 projects.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a timeline or scope of how long this process from the IEDC will take quite yet,” Hancock told The Courier-Times.
– Story by Travis Weik (Editor@TheCourierTimes.com) of The Courier-Times. Read more local stories at TheCourierTimes.com.