A long-idle former industrial site in Newport is set to become a new housing development with 342 townhomes and apartments.
Last March, developer PLK Communities proposed 195 townhome-style apartments; now, the developer has increased that number to 342 units at the city’s request for higher density. The location is about 17.23 acres along Route 9 at 910 Lowell St. and has sat vacant for around 25 years.
The Newport Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the concept development plan at its meeting on March 24.
The project will also include a clubhouse with coworking space, a fitness center, a resident pool and lounge space and a dog park. Part of the project negotiated last year includes funding for tree planting and collaboration with the city on a bike-and-pedestrian safety study along Route 9.
“There’s a lot of talk of a housing shortage, and this is one of the things that we actually did push the developer early on in this to build as dense as you can,” said Newport Assistant City Manager Brian Steffen. “Because of that housing shortage, they willingly complied with that. So they saw the benefits of additional density as well.”
A study of housing in Northern Kentucky has revealed troubling trends for housing in the region, with the largest need being for “workforce housing” for households earning between $15 and $25 per hour, with monthly housing costs between $500 and $1,500. The region needs about 3,000 more housing units to provide for people within that income range, according to the study. The demand for one- to two-bedroom rentals and owned properties consistently exceeds their supply, while supply for three and four-bedroom properties consistently exceeds demand. The study suggests that the region needs to build 6,650 housing units to support economic development in the next five years, which equates to 1,330 units per year. Read more here.
Understanding NKY’s housing shortage
The development will include 342 apartment homes. Of those, 144 will be a mix of one, two and three bedrooms in a three-story walk-up with a more traditional apartment feel. There will also be 128 two-bedroom townhomes and 72 three-bedroom townhomes. Mick Oakes with PLK Communities said the units will be market-rate and estimated the three-bedroom units to rent for $2,300-$2,500 per month.
Each townhome will have a two-car garage attached. Additionally, there is surface parking across the site. The development will have about a 2.22 parking space to unit ratio.
“This is geared towards attracting not only young professionals, but families,” Oakes said. “It’s an all-encompassing product type, we were tasked to drive some more density into the site, and we feel that this wide mix of both the town home and three-story walk-up with a more traditional apartment feel really will serve not only Newport, but the residents that choose to live here.”
PLK has done other regional projects, such as Factory 52 in Norwood and ILA Hyde Park.
Last April, the Newport Commission passed the request for an Industrial Revenue Bond for the project, also known as an IRB, 4-1, with Newport Commissioner Ken Rechtin voting no.
An IRB is a form of municipal bond issued by a government to finance the construction or improvement of facilities for private businesses. The IRB approved $5.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value for 40 years. The $90 million value with the payment in lieu of taxes, also known as a PILOT, will represent an excess of about a 2,300% increase in tax revenue on the site for the city.
A PILOT gives the developer a certain property tax reduction to build the site.
The Newport Board of Education approved the PILOT last year. The school’s share of the PILOT is estimated at $240,000 annually, compared to $21,120 today.
As part of the project, PLK has agreed to donate $150,000 to the city for tree planting. Newport announced last February that the federal government had rescinded its $1.2 million tree-grant from the Arbor Day Foundation. Through that grant, the city planned to plant 1,000 trees.
PLK Communities acquired the property late last summer and has begun a robust site remediation.
“So obviously, a former steel plant, it was a very robust site cleanup, which we are well into that process right now, not only some remediation efforts, but just it seemed like communities that had been there for some time,” Oakes said. “The standard [back then] was, let’s just mow them down, and we’ll bury them on top of each other. So lots of fun Easter eggs we’re uncovering as we go through and bring the site back up to our development standards.”
Newport Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Ron Rawe asked whether the company has encountered any issues with environmental protection agencies or any cleanup in that regard.
Oakes said any environmental concerns have been remediated at this point.
