Housing opportunities in the works for Grand Island

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - Two housing development projects in Grand Island are advancing to the city council for approval.

The Grand Island Community Redevelopment Authority has approved plans for the next phase of Legacy 34, which will add 22 single-family homes to the Prairie District off Husker Highway.

The CRA also approved plans for The Talon Apartments to add three buildings to their complex, totaling 66 units.

Chad Nabity, Grand Island Community Development Director, said the new units will help address the city's low vacancy rate, which has hovered around 2.5-3% over the past 25 years.

"We've also got more units occupied than is really healthy within the housing market which causes prices to go up," said Nabity. "It also means that landlords don't have the ability to get in and clean units and do refurbishing and take care of those units the way they should be taken care of."

Nabity said a healthy vacancy rate for a city the size of Grand Island should be between 5-7%.

The additional buildings at The Talon were originally planned to be built with the rest of the complex, but changes in the plans left a costly issue eight years later.

"Today the cost of building those is significantly more than it was in 2016 when they built their first building," said Nabity. " So they're coming back for an amended redevelopment plan and looking to use workforce housing TIF (tax increment financing) as an option to help them get financing to finish that project up."

Despite the higher costs, Nabity said there are advantages to expanding the existing complex rather than starting from scratch.

"The infrastructure is in place, everything's there, they've got the clubhouse," said Nabity. "They have the amenities that are already there that they don't have to add if they were building somewhere else."