Indianapolis developer plans 500 apartments in two D.M. projects mixing market-rate, affordable units
KENT DARR Dec 16, 2016 | 8:36 pm
2 min read time
559 wordsAll Latest News, Real Estate and DevelopmentTWG Development LLC, the Indianapolis company that is converting the former Register and Tribune Building into commercial space and 160 apartments, plans to bring nearly 500 additional multifamily units to the Des Moines market in two developments, one in a redeveloping industrial area near downtown and another near Southridge Mall.
The company, which is expected to complete the $36 million R&T Lofts project next year at the former newspaper building at Seventh and Locust streets, has been under contract to purchase a 2.5-acre site at 201 S.E. Sixth St. in the city’s Market District on the southern fringe of the East Village.
TWG Development plans a $40 million project at that site that includes 211 apartments at a mix of market-rate and affordable new housing units, helping to fill a void in the development of affordable housing downtown. The development will be called Market Street Lofts.
For the project, the company is seeking City Council support for an application for an estimated $1 million in state of Iowa Workforce Housing tax credits. The state requires a local contribution toward project costs. According to a city staff report to the City Council, that contribution will come in the form of a 10-year, declining-rate abatement of property taxes. The estimated value of the tax abatement is $7.2 million, according to the report.
The majority of the apartments will charge market-rate rents, with 20 units designated as affordable to people earning 80 percent of the area median income.
Amenities will include underground parking with an estimated 210 parking spaces, an indoor fitness center, a business center, a lounge area with kitchen and entertainment area, a coffee bar and a bike storage room.
In addition, the project is anticipated to share in the costs of rebuilding segments of East Elm Street and East Market Street, which is proposed to be reconstructed as a pedestrian plaza with public use, that are adjacent to the development site, according to the report.
This is the second residential development proposed for the Market District. Matt Connolly and Frank Levy are developing Connolly Lofts, which also will offer market-rate and affordable units, in a project that will occupy a narrow strip of property between Southeast Sixth and Seventh streets and north of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
Near Southridge Mall, TWG Development, through affiliate Southridge Apartment Partners LP, plans 288 mixed-rate apartments in 10 buildings on 18 acres in the 7100 block of Southeast Fifth Street, The estimated construction cost is $32 million.
The company seeks an estimated $1 million in state tax credits. The development is within the Southside Urban Renewal District, and the local contribution will come from an estimated $5.9 million in project generated tax increment finance revenues paid over 15 years.
According to a report to the Council, the majority of the apartments — 228 — will be designated as affordable at 60 percent of the area median income level.
Amenities will include a clubhouse with community room, a fitness center, a swimming pool, 60 garage spaces, a park/green space for tenant use and a dog run/park facility.
“This development will help facilitate the repurposing of the mall property into an open-air retail, commercial, residential, recreational, and educational mixed-use destination,” according to the report.
The project will be “urban scaled,” according to the report, with minimal setbacks buildings placed on an urban street grid.
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