State Grant Paves Way for 40 New Homes in Holdrege

A new subdivision in East Holdrege could add as many as 40 living units to help ease the local workforce housing shortage.

In late April, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development announced that Holdrege was one of 14 communities selected to receive grants through the new rural workforce housing program established by LB518 last year.

The Holdrege Development Corporation applied for the grant and will oversee the development of the new subdivision that will be built east of East Street near 11th Avenue. The property is just south of the Sunrise East subdivision on 10 acres of ground that the Holdrege Housing Authority purchased last year.

The $319,500 state grant combined with a $250,000 grant from the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority and $250,000 in LB840 funds from the Phelps County Development Corporation will be used to help finance the project.

The grant money, combined with the local match, gives the HDC more than $800,000 to construct the infrastructure for the subdivision. They may also seek other financing methods to help reduce the final cost of the homes.

PCDC Executive Director Ron Tillery said it was important that PCDC partner on the project to provide seed money to serve as the local match required to receive the grant.

“We are doing that because workforce housing is critical to our community,” Tillery said. “If we can’t house them, we can’t employ them.”

Capri Chapman, Executive Director of the Holdrege Development Corporation and the Holdrege Housing Authority, said work could begin as early as this fall on the new subdivision. The northern portion of the 10-acre parcel will be dedicated to 20 new tax-credit low-income duplexes similar to the ones built in east Holdrege a few years ago. Those duplexes are currently fully occupied with a waiting list. The duplexes are not part of the grant-funded project but will be part of the new subdivision.

The rest of the subdivision (the part funded by the grant) will be dedicated to workforce housing with space for about 20 homes. Chapmans said the final price of finished homes must not exceed $200,000 as required by the state law for the recipients of workforce housing grants.

Chapman will seek bids from a single developer for the tax-credit project. The lots on the workforce housing portion of the project could be purchased by one developer, several developers or by private owners who want to build homes.

“We will continue to move forward with adding new housing to Holdrege,” Chapman said.