LIMA — Two proposed housing projects in the city of Lima have made it through the first hurdle of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency’s funding selection process.
The nearly $16 million housing project at 43 Town Square and the $9 million Market Street Senior Village project received the maximum allowable points for the OHFA’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit Proposal, putting both of them in the running for millions of dollars in funding, along with 20 other non-urban multifamily new construction project applicants throughout the state. Both projects are requesting $8 million in tax credits over 10 years. The 43 Town Square project is being developed by the Woda Group, while the developer for the Market Street Senior Village project is New Lima Housing for the Future.
“This does not guarantee that they will be funded, because the final decision will be made on June 15 after additional exceptional development points will be added to the 22 projects still in contention,” Lima Community Development Director Amy Sackman Odum said. “I think Lima should be very proud, and I want to thank New Lima Housing for the Future and the Woda Group for putting together such competitive applications.”
The original number of submitted projects was about 120, according to Odum, which were then narrowed down to more than 90 applications that met the eligibility requirements.
Odum said that part of that success could be traced to the fact that in order to qualify for HOME funds from the city, the developers had to meet nearly the same standards called for by the OHFA. If these projects receive funding, the city of Lima will contribute $500,000 in HOME funds to the Woda Group’s project and $150,000 of HOME Community Housing Development Organization funds to the Market Street project.
“I credit the city of Lima’s process, and I want to thank the council, the mayor and everyone else for expecting a high level of quality and having a very rigorous process for application for the funds which we were to contribute,” she said.
The Woda Group project would create 47 new housing units, 10 to be sold at market rate, in the old National Bank Building on Town Square, with the first floor dedicated to commercial space and the next two floors slated for office space. The Market Street Senior Village project would create 48 units targeted to senior citizens, with a new building to be built in the vicinity of the vacant YWCA.
