March 28, 2022 County helps workforce housing with ARPA dollars
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GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to provide a workforce housing developer $600,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funding at Tuesday night’s board meeting.
A planned development, Nathan Ridge, is a $34 million workforce apartment project. Jacksonville-based Vestcor Companies plans on building 192 units, which are one-to-three bedrooms. It will be located near the intersection of Old Jennings Road and Discovery Drive.
TVC Development is a subsidiary of Vestcor. TVC Development Vice President Ryan Hoover told commissioners the project faces extreme increases in construction costs. Hoover said establishing funding has been a long process, using bonds from the county, and that the project was at risk.
“The longer we wait, the worse it’s going to get for us,” Hoover said.
The Housing Finance Authority of Clay County determined that there exists a shortage of housing for people of low-to-moderate income in the area, according to county documents.
Commissioner Betsy Condon said rents are also skyrocketing.
As an example, she mentioned an Orange Park property built in the 1960s, which sold for $10 million in 2019 and last month sold for $20 million. The rents are now estimated to be in the $1,700-$1,900 range. Condon said projects like Nathan Ridge needed support.
“There just is not, whether you want to call it affordable workforce or whatever, housing available in Clay County,” she said.
Condon and Commissioner Mike Cella relayed instances where someone asked them about renting, and the county’s housing situation made for a difficult answer. Cella said counties across the state are providing much larger figures than $600,000 to assist workforce housing.
He cited a lack of real estate and high costs as reasons for the problem and called the funding for the project appropriate.
“It is a problem not only in the state of Florida and all 67 counties, but in this country,” Cella said.