Commission hears details on senior housing
By Chris Erickson
The Hazen City Commission heard plans early this week from a development consultant on potential plans for senior housing in the city.
Joe Armstrong, of Multifamily Capital Resources, presented on an affordable housing structure that would potentially be built on a roughly 4-acre tract of land on the west end of Main Street near Krause’s.
“Mercer County seems ready for business,” Armstrong said. “If this goes forward the construction cycle would begin in spring of 2015.”
Armstrong laid out the goals of building a rental structure with a mix of affordable senior apartments, market-rate senior housing and affordable workforce housing. He noted that the program he was referring to for the financing of the structure was basically an IRS housing program.
“A non-profit or profit-driven company looking to build in North Dakota using the tax credit program would have to first go to the Qualfied Allowance Program conference,” he said. “That’s how the state decides how to prioritize scare resources such as workforce or senior housing through tax credit programs.”
According to Armstrong, local companies could analyze its tax obligation at the end of the year and instead of putting it to the state general fund, the company could instead meet their tax obligation and put it into local housing.
