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Last updated on Wednesday, November 5, 2014
(BEDFORD) - Demolition work will change the appearance of Bedford’s downtown as construction begins on Stonecutters Place Senior Apartments.
Hoosier Uplands, which is in charge of the Stellar project, purchased the former Carriage House Furniture building at 16th and K streets and the Brock & Sears building and Bedford Pool Hall.
Hoosier Uplands purchased the pool hall from John Dugger for $150,000. He plans to reopen the pool hall in the former Casey's Swap Shop at 1003 15th Street.
Chief executive Officer David Miller says demolish of the Brock & Sears buildings and the pool hall will begin soon.
Millers says new apartment building will occupy the site where the Brock & Sears Building sits while the space where the pool hall building sat will be turned into a park.
The building will house 30 apartments for senior citizens. Construction should be completed by this time next years and apartments ready to lease by Feb. 1, 2016.
Those living in the complex could make up to $22,500 and monthly rent could vary from about $220 to $550, depending upon income. The average rent is estimated at $482.
Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis awarded the project a grant from its affordable housing program in the amount of $500,000.
In February, the state approved $712,182 in federal tax credits, which are administered and managed by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, for use on the project.
Miller says the credits represent an allotment over 10 years, translating into about $7.1 million.
Such credits are sold to investors, usually large corporations, that pay 85 to 90 cents or so on the dollar. So $7.1 million in tax credits could generate roughly $6 million that could be used for the renovation and construction.
Hoosier Uplands, which has done other projects with similar funding mechanisms, will obtain a construction loan to cover costs, with the tax credit income used to pay the loan.
In February, Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann announced that Stonecutters Place received a $400,000 loan from the state housing authority.
"There are no local tax dollars being used to fund this acquisition and construction," Miller wrote in a prepared statement.
The city also granted the project a tax abatement. Under that agreement, Stonecutters Place will pay no property taxes the first year, 10 percent of the tax the second year and so on for 10 years, when it is completely on the tax rolls.
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