On August 14, the Governor's office announced the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) has awarded $38 million in workforce housing credits (up from $35 million last year) to 59 projects across Iowa. Iowa’s Workforce Housing Tax Credit encourages development and rehabilitation of housing in Iowa, especially focusing on rehabilitation of vacant or underused property.
In Polk County, 7 projects were awarded a combined $4.07 million in tax credits. Six are in Des Moines with the 7th in Windsor Heights. Those projects will support new construction of 474 new rental housing units. Where additional media coverage about specific projects is available, we've linked it at the end of this post.
Again this year, IEDA reported it received applications for more than double the incentives available in this funding round, receiving applications for $70 million in credit for an available $35 million with an additional $3 million coming this year from reallocation of 2023 credits. The agency says projects were “scored competitively based on readiness, documented financing, community impact, and developer experience.”
Receipt of the tax credit does not require that future residents of the property will need to meet income guidelines; however, to qualify, project costs per unit are capped depending on the type of project. For multi-family housing in an urban area, the cap this year was $241,643/unit.
Polk County projects funded
All projects shown are in Des Moines, except The Windsor, which will be in Windsor Heights.
Project Title | Number of Units | Total Award | More information about this project |
|---|---|---|---|
High Street Lofts II | 44 | $982,027 | |
The Windsor | 101 | $1,000,000 | |
The Murphy Triangle | 12 | $264,000 | |
Elevate Townhomes | 11 | $246,903 | |
Klein Historic Housing | 4 | $79,206 | |
Tempo | 110 | $500,000 | |
Falcon Apartments | 192 | $1,000,000 | |
Total | 474 | $2,104,880 | |
Source: Office of Governor Kim Reynolds