Old becomes new

Once the home is renovated, it will provide an opportunity for homeownership for a low- to moderate-income family through the American Dream Downpayment Initiative Program.

The property at 1510 N. Grant Ave. was built in 1902 and converted into two apartments in the 1950s. It was boarded up in the 1990s because it became a hangout for transients. After it was abandoned seven years ago, it was declared a blighted property.

Urban Neighborhoods Alliance Executive Director Bob Horton said that the Grant Avenue home project is the first of what will hopefully be many projects for the collaboration. Urban Neighborhoods, LLC, a joint venture of UNA and Great Southern’s CDC, is putting up the capital to rehabilitate the house.

“It’s our first true rehab project,” Horton said. The house is located in the center of the Grant Beach center city neighborhood, one of five neighborhoods under the umbrella of UNA. Others are Midtown, Woodland Heights, West Central and Sherman Avenue. Boundaries are from Kearney on the north to Grand on the south, extending to National on the east and Kansas on the west.

Getting the house

Two years ago, the city of Springfield acquired the property after thousands of dollars in unpaid liens were levied against the house.

“The city sold us the house for $1,” Horton said. “We acquired the house in late December and work began on July 21.”

The house already has new windows and siding, and work has begun on the inside. “When we first looked at the house, it was boarded up,” said Darrell Hughes with Restyle Corp., the project contractor. “We did a walk-through with a flashlight and it was left very trashy. There were holes in the roof where it had rained in and damaged the house. There were rat carcasses. For the first week, we just cut trees and brush.”

Inside the house, Hughes and his crew and subcontractors have found an open staircase that was enclosed. That and the hardwood floors were the only things salvageable inside the house.

“First thing, we spent $6,300 in electrical, $6,500 on heat and air and $6,300 in plumbing, all in these walls,” Hughes said.

A total of $97,000 will be invested in the house, including a new garage and deck. The 1,760-square-foot house will have three bedrooms, two baths, kitchen, living room and dining room. When completed, the appraisal value will be $107,000.

The house will be for sale as affordable housing to an individual or family.

“We’ve already gotten two calls from people who are interested,” Horton said. “I look for us to start another project before this one is sold, or maybe just acquire the property. We have two donated properties we are looking at right now.”

The Grant Avenue house is scheduled for completion in December. “The buyer will get their own financing, but there are programs for low- to moderate-income families that offer down payment and closing cost assistance,” Horton said.

The city has earmarked funds in its American Dream Downpayment Initiative Program to assist a potential buyer with those costs.

If the house sells for more than the $97,000 investment, the profits will be divided equally, with half going to UNA’s Emergency Relief Fund to be used to assist UNA district residents in emergencies.

The other portion will go to the city of Springfield, which will use the funds to recoup some of the cost of acquiring the property and to extend the funding for more blighted properties in the city. The sale of the house will go through Urban Neighborhoods LLC, Horton said.

The goal is to promote private investment and encourage people to invest in their homes, said Great Southern’s Brian Fogle. The community development corporation is directly financing the redevelopment, but it’s not providing a loan.

“We’re providing capital and providing equity into the project,” Fogle said. “Great Southern is one of the banks that can help finance through the American Dream Downpayment Initiative. When we sell, we do hope we get a chance to help that buyer.

“GSCDC, a subsidiary of Great Southern Bank, first began in the late 1970s to give banks a new tool to help meet community obligations that can’t be met through regular, conventional means,” he added.

The Grant Street project is the second project funded by Great Southern’s CDC, with the first being the Community Foundation of the Ozarks building downtown.

“The benefits of such a project include filling a vacant building, transforming a neighborhood and moving a family into that neighborhood,” Fogle said. “We will do that one house at a time. If this one works, we’ll do it again.”