MANSFIELD, Ohio – At Tuesday night’s Mansfield City Council meeting, John Conglose of J.B. Conglose & Associates, LLC presented a proposal for the Mansfield Armory Project. The $10 million project would turn the 271 Hedges Street property into 31 new single-family housing units in and around the SSG Roy Clifton Scouten United States Army Reserve Center, as well as additional one to three bedroom apartments.
“The target audience for 12 of the units to be built in the Armory building is the homeless, specifically seniors, veterans, and the 18 to 24 age group,” explained Conglose.
The Trek Development Group out of Pittsburgh, PA would partner with the local Mary McLeod-Bethune Intervention and Enrichment Center (MBIE) on the project to serve the homeless in Richland County.
“The NBIE staff would work with the homeless to get them on their feet and into more permanent housing,” explained Conglose.
The Mansfield Armory Project would include the armory and the land around it including an abandoned swimming pool, all taking up approximately four acres.
The Trek Development Group is known for building tax credit communities and will submit a low and moderate income housing tax credit application to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency to develop this project.
“Trek’s mission is to try to work with groups such as MBIE to help them carry out their mission and in turn be involved in real estate development projects.”
Conglose approached the council at the meeting to ask for a resolution to give the project a priority.
When asked about a timeline, Conglose said the preliminary application must be in by Feb. 20, 2015 and then a final proposal by Aug. 20. If all goes well, the housing will be ready to occupy by the Fall 2016 with full occupancy by Winter of 2017.
Councilmember Don Bryant asked about jobs that might be created from the project. “Trek has their own architectural firm from Cleveland Heights who are familiar with this process,” said Conglose. However, there will be local subcontractors involved to handle things like snow removal, maintenance, lawn care, and other needs that would be taken care of locally. “It’s probably about 12 full-time equivalent jobs into the area.”
The project would not be entirely covered by the tax credit. “The tax credit won’t cover the entire amount,” said Conglose. “We are approaching other agencies to help fill the gap.”
Mansfield resident Linda Burrage addressed council following Conglose’s proposal. She voiced her concern that the project is a for-profit venture and only those homeless persons with some sort of income or stipend will be allowed into the housing project.
“What I’ve heard so far tonight is that this is strictly for-profit and no one will be on your property unless they have some kind of income,” said Burrage. “At this place, if you don’t have any income, you aren’t going to be there.”
The rent for the housing ranges anywhere from $571 to $804. “That’s a lot if you’re homeless,” explained Burrage.
Leonard Dillon of MBIE explained that the project would mostly house people such as senior citizens who have pensions, veterans who have military stipends and the 18-24 age bracket who have been in foster care but now need to transition into adult housing.
The council invited Burrage and anyone else interested in discussing the project to future council meetings at the project continues to be evaluated before a decision is made by the council to support it.
