Dunkirk project denied credit

DUNKIRK — A proposed senior housing project is still in search of a funding source.
Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, which is working with the City of Dunkirk on the project, was denied its request for more than $900,000 in Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority tax credits Thursday when Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann announced awards Thursday. The credits would have been part of about $3.4 million Buckeye is seeking for construction of a $4.3 million senior housing facility — Crown Crossing — in downtown Dunkirk.
“It’s disappointing. It’s another setback,” Dunkirk Mayor Dan Watson said this morning. “We just keep trying and keep plugging along. Hopefully one of these days, something will come through. It’s just frustrating.
“We just need to get that break. It just hasn’t happened yet.”
Watson said he plans to continue working with Buckeye to find a funding source for the project. Ami Huffman, director of community development for Jay County Development Corporation, said those options include leftover IHCDA funds as well as the Stellar Communities grant program through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.
Ellspermann on Thursday announced more than $12.5 million in tax credits and another $5 million in additional IHCDA funding for 16 projects. The largest awards went to Flagstone Village in Lake County and Jasper Lofts in Dubois County, each at about $1.2 million. Music City Place in Richmond received $790,000 in tax credits and another half million in additional funding.
“These projects utilize public and private investment to address the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of existing structures, support larger community development initiatives and further efforts towards stabilizing neighborhoods,” said Ellspermann, who chairs the IHCDA board, in a press release. “Affordable housing options are a vital component to promoting Hoosier self-sufficiency and revitalizing our communities.”
Buckeye, a Columbus, Ohio, company, was one of 36 applicants denied funding in this round of grants. It had requested $501,360 in tax credits and $400,000 in additional funding.

That money would have gone toward construction of the facility on the west side of Main Street between Center Street and the railroad tracks. The proposed three-story complex would include 28 units — 13 with one bedroom and 15 with two — as well as a courtyard, social hall, kitchen, laundry room, library, computer room and administrative office space.
Jay County Council has approved a $150,000 in economic development income tax (EDIT) loan for the project, and Dunkirk has pledged $110,000.
“There’s no way you can do a project of that magnitude without some kind of assistance,” said Watson.
Huffman noted that IHCDA sets aside some contingency money for applications that did not score highly enough to earn funding but are still worthy projects. Those funds will likely be awarded by the end of March, she said, and letters of interest for the Stellar Communities program are due March 16.
There will also be another round of IHCDA tax credits awarded in the fall.
“It’s hard to disappoint a community,” said Huffman. “We wanted this really bad.
“It’s hard to work on a project like that and you wait for one day and you don’t hear what you want to hear.
“But they’ve got everything ready, so we can’t not keep trying.”