Thomas Development
chosen for Town Center project
By TRAVIS
PURSER
Express Staff Writer
The Blaine
County Housing Authority voted unanimously to enter into a development
agreement with Thomas Development, the Boise-based company that will be
the authority’s partner in the proposed town center that would include
affordable housing, shops and a visitors center on Ketchum’s Main
Street.
Housing
director Gates Kellett said the deal for the Town Center project is pretty
"bare bones" but defines the authority’s role in the project
as having only to do with affordable housing.
To get 20
rental units built and to maintain some control over how they’re
managed, the authority will have a .002 percent ownership interest. As the
authority’s general partner, Thomas Development will have a .008 percent
ownership interest.
The general
partners have not yet selected a lender to buy in on the other 99.99
percent to become a limited partner in town center.
Because the
authority has no money of its own to build the housing, it is entering
into a dizzyingly complex arrangement to entice the developer and a lender
to build the housing in exchange for federal housing tax credits.
During a
review of the development agreement in a meeting Thursday night, attorney
Doug Werth told the authority it would have to limit its involvement in
the project to affordable housing. The development agreement would do
that, he said.
The
authority might file a letter with the Idaho Secretary of State limiting
Thomas Development’s control over the affordable housing portion of the
project.
Werth said
also that the authority could legally be a tenant of the town center.
The public
has criticized the authority of proposing a deal that involves commercial
development. But Kellet said there are several advantages to the
arrangement.
Mixed-used
buildings are generally considered a good idea because they allow
residents to live close to where they work and shop, she said. And,
financing is available at a lower rate for mixed-use buildings.
Responding
to critics who said the project is progressing too quickly, Kellett said
she wished more citizens had attended public meetings earlier during the
project.
"We’re
serious when we’re proposing something," she said. "If there’s
one thing I want to communicate, that’s it."
In Hailey,
Thomas Development built The Balmoral apartments, which use tax credits to
offer lower rents.
Town center
would be the first project in Ketchum the company’s owner, Thomas
Mannshreck, would tackle.
"He’s
kind of interested in doing others," said authority chairman David
Kipping after meeting with Mannshreck.