Linden Meadows homes to get city-funded repairs

Application to be submitted for $3 million grant to create 150 jobs

By DANIEL SUDDEATH

It’s not a permanent solution for the failed Linden Meadows development, but some help is on the way for the subdivision’s three homeowners.

During a Tuesday meeting, the New Albany Redevelopment Commission approved allowing its emergency repair agency — New Directions Housing Corp. — to spend up to $5,000 on infrastructure repairs at the three houses.

They are the only homes occupied in Linden Meadows, as several houses remain vacant at the site after the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, or IHCDA, stopped work at the subdivision this summer due to its dilapidated condition.

The site is still owned by the New Albany-Floyd County Community Housing Development Organization, though the body is attempting to disband in large part due to a defaulted PNC Bank loan which has resulted in a lawsuit.

Installing insulation and fixing storm windows will be some of the repairs New Directions will provide for the three houses. Work that Carl Malysz, deputy mayor and director of community development for the city, said was promised to the homeowners when they bought the houses.

“We’re trying to make good on the faith these households had in [Community Housing] that didn’t turn out very well,” Malysz said.

Irving Joshua, president of the redevelopment commission, pushed for the repairs but said the improvements will not mean resolution for Linden Meadows.

“We don’t own the property. That’s a whole other issue,” Joshua said.

In fact, a permanent solution could take up to five years, he continued.

Malysz said he’s been meeting with IHCDA and Community Housing officials over the past week in an attempt to formulate a strategy.

The state has a second mortgage on the property, but its offer to purchase Linden Meadows from PNC for $300,000 was denied. The PNC mortgage for Linden Meadows is just less than $1.4 million.

Malysz said the negotiations aren’t to a point where a firm plan can be proclaimed.

“We’re not in a position to announce or discuss to anybody a strategy,” he said.

Though the city doesn’t own the property, it did contribute land and cash to Community Housing for the development.

The state ordered a study of the subdivision that suggested possible options for rehabbing it and getting some use out of the property, though that could include demolishing most if not all of the houses at Linden Meadows.

Shannon Johnson, president of the Community Housing board of directors, stated in an e-mail last week that nothing has been finalized with the state and the agency still intends to disperse.

“We think we have an attorney that may help us dissolve the agency, but we have just sent some preliminary paperwork to that person. No finalized deal. We’re in a holding pattern,” she said.



Also at the meeting

Hired by the commission to assist with grant writing, River Hills Economic Development District and Regional Planning Commission has prepared an application that could bring $3 million in Community Development Block Grant funds to boost a local business.

Kemper Foods International, LLC announced in November its plans to expand and bring 350 jobs to New Albany by 2012. It could be aided by CDBG money designated by the state for communities impacted by the August flooding.

It’s separate from any individual or other business assistance, and does not bear on the city’s annual allotment of federal CDBG money.

If New Albany and co-applicant Kemper Foods are awarded the grant, the company would be charged with adding 150 jobs with the CDBG money by purchasing new equipment to expand its operations.

Additionally, 51 percent of the jobs would have to be offered to low-to-moderate income workers.

“These funds specifically have to go to rebuild the local economy,” Malysz said.

Typically state CDBG funds aren’t offered to New Albany. Malysz said the grant — which does not require a local match — would allow Kemper to implement “one of their expansion phases”.

Jill Saegesser, executive director of River Hills, said the application should be finished by the end of the month with a decision by the state to come early in 2010.

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