Cedar Rapids OKs additional incentives for affordable housing project

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids City Council approved additional incentives Tuesday for an affordable housing project in the city’s southwest quadrant.

Council members approved a resolution authorizing financial incentives from the city’s Community Benefit-Economic Development Program toward the Ginkgo Ridge town home project on Summit Avenue SW.

The resolution initiates the process of establishing an urban renewal area to collect increment taxes and rebate them to the developer, Ginkgo Ridge LLC, in accordance with a development agreement to be drafted for council approval.

The approximately $6.1 million project will create a total of 15 town home units through the construction of three fourplexes and one triplex on Summit Avenue SW near Czech Village. The project also includes one single-family home, although that unit is not eligible for additional incentives.

The homes will be listed for sale at $175,000 per unit under the city’s Rebuilding Ownership Opportunities Together — or ROOTs — program for low- and moderate-income buyers. To qualify, purchasers must meet federal income guidelines.

The project previously received $3.77 million in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds announced in 2023. Council documents state work on the project stalled, however, due to unexpected price increases.

Cedar Rapids Economic Development Project Coordinator Scott Mather said that the goal in allocating further incentives is to bridge that funding gap and allow the project to move forward. Construction is expected to begin in June, and the estimated completion date is December 2026.

“This project did receive (state) funding, but a funding gap still exists,” Mather said. “As they pay their taxes, we will rebate a portion … to help make up that difference.”

Under the approved resolution, the city would provide developers with a reimbursement of 100 percent of the tax increments up to a total of $350,000.

Ginkgo Ridge was one of 11 projects to receive a portion of the more than $24 million in disaster recovery funds allocated to Cedar Rapids housing projects to rebuild the city’s housing stock after the destruction wrought by the 2020 derecho.

The funds were allocated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and funneled through the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

To qualify for those funds, developers had to pledge to build properties that could withstand higher winds and protect against future climate disasters. Further, the units must go above and beyond normal code requirements in terms of energy efficiency.

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