In Missouri, Roadway Redesign Spurs New Housing Development

In Missouri, Roadway Redesign Spurs New Housing Development

The 3-story, 39,900-square-foot Nordic Landing features 41 units, each offering 1 or 2 bedrooms, in Springfield, Missouri. Photo credit: Debra Shantz Hart

Nordic Landing is a mixed-income housing development in Springfield, Missouri, that furthers a major initiative to leverage transportation infrastructure for economic revitalization. The development offers 38 income-restricted units, 8 of which are reserved for youth transitioning out of foster care. Nordic Landing gives residents access to various social services, including an onsite early childhood education (ECE) center.

Corridor Planning Creates Opportunity for Housing

Nordic Landing, which used federal and state low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC), was one of the first projects advanced under the Grant Avenue Parkway Corridor Plan, the city of Springfield's effort to promote mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly development in neighborhoods adjacent to the newly redesigned and rebuilt Grant Avenue Parkway. A $31 million project that began in 2022 and is nearing completion has transformed Grant Avenue Parkway into a multimodal transportation corridor featuring a 3-mile, off-street pedestrian and bicycle pathway.

But when Nordic Landing's developer, Debbie Shantz Hart, began eyeing the property, the Grant Avenue infrastructure project had yet to break ground, and the 6-acre site looked anything but promising. "Terrible — it was terrible," said Shantz Hart, who noted that the site, which had three buildings, all in disrepair, including an old residence, had become a common hangout for squatters. Between the time when Shantz Hart's company, DHTC Development, acquired the property in February 2023 and when construction began the following month, an explosion had destroyed the residence, and someone had set fire to one of the other structures, she said.

Despite the site's troubled history, DHTC Development recognized its potential — in the central part of Springfield; bordering a creek; across from a high school; and, most importantly, just off Grant Avenue Parkway, the focus of an infrastructure project and corridor plan designed to turn the avenue into a critical city connector. The pedestrian and bicycle pathway built alongside the reconfigured roadway was intended to spur neighborhood-level revitalization; link cultural and environmental resources; and complement other projects, including efforts to revive Springfield's historic downtown core.

The 3-story, 39,900-square-foot building features 41 units, each offering 1 or 2 bedrooms. The development included $7.4 million in construction costs and another $2.1 million in soft costs. Nordic Landing's 38 subsidized units are available to renters earning between 30 percent and 80 percent of the area median income (AMI). "The bulk [of the apartments] are 60 percent AMI units, but income averaging allows us to go down to 30 percent, which is very helpful with the special needs population of youth aging out of foster care," Shantz Hart said. Three units were priced at the lower end of the market rate, she added.

Nordic Landing received a $5.8 million construction loan from Great Southern Bank and paid it off quickly using $2.7 million in state LIHTC equity and $5 million in federal LIHTC equity, Shantz Hart said. With roughly $1.9 million in LIHTC equity remaining, a $300,000 HOME Investment Partnerships loan from the city of Springfield, and a $200,000 HOME Investment Partnerships loan from the Missouri Housing Development Commission left DHTC Development $1.3 million to cover to complete the financing for the project's total development costs of $9.5 million.

Shantz Hart said that the state tax credit program was an essential financing piece to close the project's equity gap. She credits the Grant Avenue Parkway infrastructure project with making Nordic Landing more appealing to the Missouri Housing Development Commission and the city, whose investment of HOME Investment Partnerships loan funding made Nordic Landing's LIHTC applications more competitive.

Nordic Landing reserves eight units for youth aging out of foster care. Photo credit: Debra Shantz Hart

Residents Benefit from Onsite Services

At Nordic Landing, Flourish Community Development Corporation, a local faith-based nonprofit, directs services for tenants who recently transitioned out of foster care, including helping them learn how to establish a household budget. Flourish coordinates with various other entities that provide services to residents, including FosterAdopt Connect, I Pour Life, and Jordan Valley Community Health Center. Together, the providers help residents access community services such as job training, financial literacy classes, and mentorship opportunities.

Shantz Hart said she was "a little bit lucky" to learn during the development process that a local ECE provider, the Ozarks Area Community Action Corporation, was searching for new space after losing a lease elsewhere in the area, even though layering in the service component added complexity to the project's financing. The solution was to set aside a 3,500-square-foot space on the ground floor that was leased to the ECE provider through a master lease, separating the ECE component of the development from Nordic Landing's subsidized elements. Nordic Landing now houses two classrooms that offer a community resource and a way to enhance the quality of life for Nordic Landing residents with young children who have enrolled at the center.

The ECE facility added to the continuum of services available through Nordic Landing. "If you can find ways to deliver services that tenants are interested in so that it helps them to, hopefully, not need affordable housing, I think that's the biggest win of all," Shantz Hart said.