MASON CITY – A downtown Mason City housing project for senior citizens snared huge federal tax credits via the state of Iowa worth millions of dollars, the Iowa Finance Authority said this week.
NIT reported that a project was in the works for the Northbridge area of downtown Mason City, across from Fareway, back in October of 2024. Then, in November of last year, the Mason City City Council approved a proposal from Horizon Development, Inc., to develop a 45-unit senior housing project at the Northbridge site, north across US 65 from the Fareway store. City hall said this project will include fifteen 1-bedroom and thirty 2-bedroom units, as well as an underground parking garage with 35 spaces.
City councilman Tim Latham told NIT today that the project could break ground at anytime after Horizon snared a huge tax credit and other incentives from the state of Iowa. The Iowa Finance Authority Board of Directors today awarded a total of more than $9.5 million in federal housing tax credits to support the construction and rehabilitation of a total of 331 affordable rental homes for Iowans. IFA had a total of approximately $9.8 million available to allocate. The actual awards total nearly $95 million because the credits are committed annually for a 10-year period.
The Internal Revenue Service makes an annual per capita allocation of federal tax credits to each state for the Federal Housing Tax Credit program. The Iowa Finance Authority is charged with allocating those credits to affordable housing developers. The developers who receive tax credits sell them to investors to generate equity for the housing developments.
The Horizon development, dubbed Encore Senior Living and located specifically at 508 N. Delaware Avenue (pictured at top), was awarded $1,293,687. As indicated earlier, this is every year for 10 years, pushing the award to almost $13,000,000.
In addition to the federal housing tax credit awards, the Horizon project received a total of $500,000 in HOME program funds and a total of $500,000 through the National Housing Trust Fund.
Other awards were made to rental housing projects located in Jasper, Johnson, Polk, Pottawattamie, Scott, Sioux and Webster counties.
“Housing is a critical pillar in fostering strong, thriving communities across the state of Iowa,” said Iowa Finance Authority Director Debi Durham. “Congratulations to all nine communities receiving tax credits today, with a special recognition to the four designated as Iowa Thriving Communities — Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Mason City and Newton — for their outstanding efforts in leveraging innovative practices to attract housing opportunities for their workforce.”
1 thought on “Mason City senior housing development snares 10 years worth of $1.29 million in federal tax credits”
taking money from “poor people” (the taxpayers of Iowa) and giving it to “rich people” (developers and old people) should be illegal.