The planned renovation of the downtown Clinton Wilson Building into rental apartments has taken steps toward reality and further steps will be taken this week.
The Housing Development Corporation of Rock Island, Illinois outlined their plan for an over eight-million dollar renovation of the building into 32 rental units with a mix of one and two bedroom apartments.
Head of the non-profit corporation – Brian Hollenback says the Iowa Economic Development Agency awarded the project about 500-thousand dollars in ‘work force housing tax credits’ earlier this month.
He says this shows when there’s a good public-private partnership, like their organization and the city of Clinton that collectively they can capitalize on their strengths and bring new resources that typically are spent in the middle of the state. He explained the credits were developed with the acknowledgement that housing is economic development. The award to Clinton was one of several announced by the state agency.
Hollenback says this will help with financing of the project. He says there are several other tax credits applications pending.
Hollenback said they ‘real close’ to starting work on the building with a closing on the sale scheduled for Wednesday this week when the agency would take ownership. After that closing the work will start on the deconstruction component and utility access.
While waiting on the other tax credits to aid in the renovations of the apartments-Hollenback says the public will start to see some activity after the closing of the sale on Wednesday. He says the front windows will be covered to tell people what’s going on and where to get more information plus they will be marketing the first floor for a retail tenant.
A formal groundbreaking ceremony would be scheduled for late summer-or early fall.
Hollenback also said they were pleased with the interest in funding the project with a dozen backs submitting proposals for the short term financing for the project.
