Funding for the Murphy’s Creek housing development is now in place.

Tuesday, November 07, 2000

Funding for the Murphy’s Creek housing development is now in place. All that remains, according to Kermit Mahan, is to assemble all the pieces into a final financing package.

The Austin Housing and Redevelopment director outlined the financing, which includes a little more than $2 million from the Hormel Foundation – the key to the other financing – $1 million from the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund and roughly $9 million from private investors.

"We’ve got all the pieces now," Mahan said. "In the next 30 days, we’ll have to put it all into the pot with the technical and legal elements, and then there will be an official closing."

Podawiltz Development, the company developing the land with a little help from the HRA, is responsible for securing the $9 million in private investments.

Mahan said that won’t be a problem. Podawiltz is using Boston Financial to attract investors from all over the United States to invest in the project.

As proposed, Murphy’s Creek will include a mix of housing: 88 rental townhome units – 38 of which will be market-rate rental and 50 that will have some income guidelines for renters to meet – and between 36 and 40 single-family homes for up to 128 housing units. The rent on the townhomes will range somewhere between $400 and $700 a month, while the single-family lots will be built for purchase only.

The city has approved the rezoning and preliminary platting of the land. Now the developer must fulfill conditions of the preliminary plat, gain approval of the final plat, and the way will be clear for construction to start in the spring.

Mahan, who has been working on the project with Podawiltz, then Apex Austin and the Hormel Foundation, and finally the city, is thrilled that everything is falling into place.

"We are really taking a big bite out of the urgent housing needs in our community," the HRA executive director said. "With Whittier Place, the airport homes, the Courtyard and the Chauncey Apartments and now this – we’re a very proactive city."