A 50 unit rental housing project is anticipated to start later this month in Jefferson.

KCG Companies Vice President of Development CJ Lintner says they’re over $13.5 million investment into the Weldon encompasses ten one-bedroom, 20 two-bedroom and 20 three-bedroom units to be located at 403 West Head Street, near Ace Hardware. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio the location is over 1,000 feet from the railroad tracks and the units will have sound reduction elements into the materials as he talks about why KCG was interested in that particular property.

“We kind of picked this location because we didn’t want something that wasn’t too compact, and wasn’t too crammed, and have a little bit of extra green space. But then, we also really wanted to be kind of as close to established neighborhoods as possible. So that this can become part of an existing neighborhood rather than putting it out on the edge of town and kind of removed from everything. (We) Felt like it was a very good fit considering there is kind of limited land available at this scale in the town area.”    

Lintner points out that the units will be two stories, ranging from just under 700 square-feet for the one-bedrooms to over 1,100 square-feet for the three-bedrooms. He states that all of the units will be 60 percent or 40 percent of the area median income within Greene County. Lintner details that they will be dedicated staff on site and own their housing properties for at least 15 years and as much as 30 years. 

He notes that they received $1.2 million of federal housing tax credits in 2024 from Iowa Finance Authority, due to the city of Jefferson being designated as a Thriving Community, which allows rural communities to take advantage of additional points for tax credits. Lintner is grateful for IFA working with them to push back when the tax credits could be used, due to litigation where individuals accused the city of not following protocols when the property was rezoned from light industrial to multi-family residential, which the courts found not to be true.

Lintner shares his thoughts on why KCG stayed with this project and with the city’s effort of scoring additional tax credit points for something like this to happen.

“Without this, the only housing that coming to the city is going to be way above market and it’s going to be for people in individual situations where they can afford to build a home. There’s really just a big gap between the demand for rental housing and the cost that it takes to build it, and the rents that will eventually support it. So, we thought it was important to do whatever we could to keep this project alive and make sure that it did come to reality.” 

Lintner adds that once construction begins, they anticipate about 15-16 months for the project to be completed and will start the leasing process right before it is wrapped up.