Recent freezing of Federal funds for housing and redevelopment programs will cause a significant delay in plans for the Kingsbury Redevelopment project in the area just west of DeBaliviere.
The Kingsbury Redevelopment Corporation will make a presentation in late March to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in order to seek loan insurance from the agency. The insurance would, in turn, make it easier for the corporation to get loans and other funding for the project.
HUD is expected to take four to six months to evaluate the proposal, according to Calvin Stuart, executive director of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council, and if it is approved another six to eight months would be needed before the project could get underway.
The Corporation does have $35,000 in seed money, lent by First National Bank, Mercantile Trust, Commerce Bank, and the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri. The money has enabled the Corporation to hire the architectural firm of Anselevicius and Rupe to draw up preliminary plans.
Kingsbury Redevelopment Corporation now faces the prospect of having to sell some of its interest in the project to private investors, in order to obtain equity funds. About ten per cent of the full mortgage amount will have to be equity, Stuart said. He added that the Corporation will try to keep as much control as possible over the project but that the necessary sale of some of its interests will dilute that control.
The sharp cutback in Federal housing funds ordered by President Nixon means that the Corporation will temporarily have to delay submitting plans for the 20 per cent of project which was to have involved subsidized interest on loans made to private home buyers. The freeze has been imposed for a minimum of 18 months.
The Corporation hopes to attract private investors to the project and also plans to approach the Missouri Housing Development Commission for loans at reduced interest. However, the feasibility of both is heavily dependent on getting the loan guarantee from HUD. The Corporation must convince HUD that the plan is economically feasible and that a market for the housing exists.
Although the government’s latest action is something of a setback for the project, Stuart commented that there were originally many sceptics who doubted if it could get even as far as it has.
Originally published in The Paper, March 1973.
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Original source: SD_Times1973_03.pdf, printed page(s) 1, 4.
