MOUNT VERNON — A proposed workforce housing development at 800 N. Sandusky St. in Clinton Township is back on the table.
St. Mary Development Corp., in partnership with Pivotal Housing Partners, is reapplying to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency to develop North of Vernon, a 134-unit workforce housing complex.
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Wes Young, president and CEO of St. Mary’s, said the Ohio Low-income Housing Tax Credit through OHFA is critical to the project.
“We need to win that award, then we can marry that award with a 4% federal tax credit, which is not competitive,” he said.
“There are a lot of different funding sources that go together to make this work, but the Ohio low-income tax credit, if you will, is really the fulcrum of whether this deal works or not.”
The complex consists of one four-story building that will serve working families whose incomes fall between 50 and 70 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development establishes those figures annually.
Currently, that translates to incomes ranging from approximately $33,850 to $78,470. Units would include one-, two-, and three-bedroom floor plans.
Planned amenities include a community room, fitness center, computer center, playground, and covered outdoor gazebo. The building would also feature energy-efficient appliances, including refrigerators and dishwashers, along with washer and dryer hookups in each unit.
An elevator makes the building accessible to residents of all ages, including seniors.
Solving the competitive funding puzzle
Tax credit awards are competitive, with the state awarding around 12 but receiving around 70 applications.
Young said that points to the demand for affordable housing units.
Pivotal Housing Partners applied for the credit last year for a 115-unit project. Although the application scored well, the project lacked sufficient units.
Young said the highest an application can score is 60 points. The first tiebreaker is whether another local project received the low-income housing tax credit within the past five years; the second is the number of units.
“If you go into the application without a perfect score, you’re not going to get it. We have a perfect score, and we have a larger number of units than we had [last year],” Young said.
Sam Filkins, president of the Knox County Area Development Foundation, said no local entity received the tax credit in the past five years, although several are interested in applying.
However, those three criteria do not guarantee the state will award the credit to St. Mary’s.
Young said if another county has gone longer without a low-income tax credit project, the state might award the credit to that county rather than Knox if awards are limited.
Young expects to hear from OHFA in late August whether St. Mary’s won the award. If it does, construction would likely start in the spring of 2027, with completion in fall 2028.
Ruscilli Construction would be the contractor; Pivotal Management would manage the property.
The project involves parcels 12-01949.001, 12-01949.005, and 12-01949.006.
Established in 1989, St. Mary’s has developed more than 6,500 housing units in 11 states.
