PCDC Partnership Paves Way for New Home

Thanks to a local partnership with PCDC, a new home now brightens the corner of 11th and Logan Streets where two dilapidated homes once stood.

Through a partnership between the Phelps County Development Corporation and the South Central Economic Development District, Inc. (SCEDD), Holdrege has a new home to help fill the local need for workforce housing.

“It was a great partnership with PCDC to be able to get that property,” said Sharon Hueftle, executive director of SCEDD. “That neighborhood has some nice things going on. We think it’s a great way to continue to enhance the neighborhood.”

PCDC purchased the lot and demolished the two homes on the property through its GO! Home Phoenix program. In early 2019, SCEDD purchased the lot from PCDC and contracted to build a component home with Vantage Pointe of Lincoln.

Earlier this month, Vantage Pointe delivered the house in two sections to the property and set it on a basement that was built over the winter. The three-bedroom, two-bath home has 1,268 square feet of living space and will have a two-car garage.

Hueftle said she hopes that construction on the home, including landscaping and constructing the roof and garage, can be completed by late May.

The house should be on the market sometime in May, Hueftle said. A final asking price has not yet been determined. Due to guidelines issued with grant funds received to build the home, the future buyer’s annual household income cannot exceed $132,000.

Hueftle said this new home is part of SCEDD’s overall efforts to ease the workforce housing crunch in its service area. SCEDD received a $274,000 grant from Nebraska’s Rural Workforce Housing Fund to help with this issue.

“The Legislature knows that across the state workforce housing is in short supply -- that is housing for people who are not low income but can’t afford to build their own custom home,” Hueftle said.

In addition to the LB518 funds, SCEDD added $150,000 from its budget, raised another $31,000 and received $224,000 from the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority to create a fund just shy of $700,000 to help solve housing issues in its 13-county region.

This Holdrege Logan Street house was the third project from this fund. The first two projects involved loans instead of a SCEDD-developed home. PCDC sold the lot to SCEDD for $1, which made the project affordable and able to stay within the financial guidelines of the rural housing grant.

Funds from SCEDD’s workforce housing fund are available for a very low interest rate for substantial rehabilitation of existing homes or construction of new homes.

Anyone interested in learning more SCEDD funds or inquiring about purchasing the new Holdrege home should contact Sharon Hueftle at SCEDD at (308) 455-4771.