URA seeking developer to build housing at Lexington Technology Park

Six years after the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) approved a plan to build 150 homes on 4.4 acres in Point Breeze North, there is nothing but a parking lot where those homes would have been built. Now, the URA and the neighborhood are going to seek a new developer.

The 4.4 acres are mostly the former parking lot for the Rockwell Corp. at Lexington Technology Park. When the URA put the project out for bid in 2017, the parking lot was combined with a 12.1-acre parcel. In 2019, ICON bought the 12.1 acres for $2.79 million with the promise to spend $22.6 million to renovate the commercial buildings.

ICON joined the Lexington parcel to its neighboring properties, now known as Rockwell Park, between North Braddock Avenue and North Lexington Street.

The parking lot remains undeveloped after Columbus-based KBK Enterprises, the company chosen by the URA in October 2018 to build there, could not work out the financing.

KBK had planned to build 150 units (50 townhouses and 100 apartments) with 50 rental units set aside for affordable housing and 25 of the townhouses for sale.

Jeff Wetzel, chair of the Point Breeze North Development Corp ., said during a meeting with the community on Sept. 9 that after a long process in 2018, the residents of Point Breeze North developed a statement of their expectations for the project.

Community members don't want a "big box" of an apartment complex and prefer a variety of homes, such as townhouses with apartments.

Vivienne Shaffer, a board member of the development corporation, said neighbors also want the new housing to reflect the community's diversity, which includes low-income residents.

Neighborhood residents want to see affordability for those who earn 20% of the area median income, which is less than $30,000 for a family of four.

Niklas Persson, a lending analyst for the URA, said the authority will help the new developer with loans and to write covenants to try to provide affordable units.

He said that while in the past the authority issued a request for proposals, this time it will issue a "request for qualifications" for the site. Then, instead of receiving a limited number of proposals from developers with the time, inclination and funding to draft a plan that may never be built, the authority would choose the developer first and work with it to create the project.

Persson said after the developer is chosen, it can seek the funding it needs.

No timeline was given for the process.