A public groundbreaking ceremony is taking place in Jefferson next week for a housing project.

Jefferson City Administrator Scott Peterson says Origin Homes, the rural housing developer arm of the Hubbell Realty Company, is planning to build three single family homes, with a special groundbreaking event on Monday at 10am at one of the lots, 504 North Vine Street. He reminds everyone how the city was able to bring a housing development company from West Des Moines into the community.

“A couple of years ago, Jefferson was designated as a Thriving Community (from the IEDA). And this was an acknowledgement to the housing efforts that have been made in the community. One of the plums from that program was that you got bonus points on your tax credit applications. So these three homes are funded partially by workforce housing tax credits and Origin Homes is beginning work on these units very, very quickly.”     

Soon after the city was designated as a Thriving Community and Origin Homes was preliminarily chosen to build three homes in Jefferson, one of the caveats is if the company was also awarded workforce housing tax credits, where they were from the Iowa Economic Development Authority for $118,000. 

According to Origin Homes, each of the three properties will feature either three or four bedrooms, a two vehicle garage and fully finished basements. The company says that in 2023, they started their Rural Housing Initiative focus because they saw an opportunity to expand their model of constructing homes on rural land, farms and lots across Iowa as a custom homebuilder. 

The three lots include 504 and 506 North Vine Street as well as 600 West Lincoln Way. Peterson anticipates all three homes will be completed by this fall and Origin Homes is estimating the sell price for each to be under $300,000.