GROW program now accepting applications to bring more housing to Adams County
April 18, 2024
Quincy, Ill. (KHQA) — The GROW program is hoping to address the housing shortage in Adams County.
The Great River Economic Development Foundation, along with Adams County, is now accepting applications for the Growing Residential Opportunities County-Wide (GROW) program.
The program will offer a $20,000 incentive per unit to developers looking to construct new residential units on a vacant lot.
GREDF President Kyle Moore says that developers have already shown interest in the program before applications opened on April 16.
“There’s been a lot of interest from local developers, the Home Builders Association, and individuals who might have a property that may not have been affordable to develop with the recent rise in building cost and the interest rate increase that we’ve seen,” said Moore.
GREDF will be hosting two seminars to give more information on the program.
One training session will be on April 23rd at 4:00 p.m. at the Oakley-Lindsay Center, as well as a session over Zoom on May 1st at 12:00 p.m., which will be posted to GREDF’s website.
Local groups come together to tackle childcare shortage
April 18, 2024
QUINCY (WGEM) – The Community Foundation Serving West Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri is bringing a variety of organizations together to create a new group to support childcare facilities and find ways to solve the lack of childcare in the area.
Community Foundation CEO Catherine Meckes said partners included in the newly formed group that met Monday are the Great River Economic Development Foundation (GREDF), the West Central Childcare Connection, and other local organizations and leaders.
Meckes said group members want to ensure there is high-quality care for every child in the area, but first, they want to address the issues childcare providers face.
“What we’re focused on is that workforce piece of childcare. We know that there are just not enough qualified workers to provide the care that our community needs. There’s a deficit in the number of slots that we have. So how can we work to help support the workers we have now and help encourage more folks to come into the field,” Meckes said.
Meckes said they are looking at local colleges like John Wood and their childcare program. They want to find ways to expand the program to get more people into the pipeline for childcare work.
Since they are a newly formed group, Meckes said they are still discussing specific ideas and solutions. She said they also want to find ways to support childcare facilities.
Recently they provided gift cards for childcare facilities to purchase food and food-related items.
At-home childcare provider Holly Elsie received $450 in gift cards from the Community Foundation childcare group. She said it helps free up the budget. She said she has used some of the money to purchase items for the children. Elsie said the money also gives her the ability to also do some activities they previously might not have been able to do. She said one activity she’s thinking about is family picnics, where the parents of the kids can join them.
Elsie said many parents utilize home daycare providers like hers, but there’s always a struggle for them to find a facility with open slots.
“The challenges that we can face are not having the availability to take on more children because we can only have certain, smaller amounts with just having yourself or possibly maybe a staff member or two. So that’s always a hard thing to have to tell parents that, we don’t have the availability for the children,” Elsie said.
Elsie said her facility can take eight children.
She said she’s glad to have received the money and a new group is working to support childcare in the area.
The Adams County GROW Program is now accepting applications!
April 12, 2024
How did we get here?
In 2023, the Great River Economic Development Foundation conducted a “Comprehensive Housing Needs Assessment for Adams County”. This study outlined the desperate need for single-family houses and affordable housing options.
In response to this study, the Adams County Board allocated $1 million of the ARPA funds to develop the GROW, or Growing Residential Opportunities County-Wide Program, to address this need. The program focuses on developers either taking abandoned houses or empty lots and turning them into affordable housing.
With the news that the Adams County Board approved the timeline, and specific details regarding the Adams County GROW Program, you might be asking yourself, what is next? We will dive into program details below.
Program Details
To be eligible for the GROW Program, a project/development must be located within Adams County. The project may include the construction of a new residential unit(s) on a vacant lot, including a single-family residence, duplex, condos, townhouses, cluster homes, and/or apartment complex. In addition, development of a currently uninhabitable structure or partially uninhabited structure will be accepted. The developer must obtain the required permits and complete the approved scope of work within 12 months of the approval of an application to the GROW Program. Longer timelines may be considered based on application. Projects completed after December 31, 2026, will not be eligible.
The program will offer a $20,000 non-repayment loan per unit to developers. The GROW Program incentive cannot exceed 50% of the cost of the project or $100,000, whichever is less. The forgivable loan period will be five years before the date of project completion with an approved certificate of occupancy.
The GROW Program Review Committee will include 7 (seven) representatives of the Great River Economic Development Foundation or other community members. The committee will review applications to assure proposals meet the goals/objectives of the GROW Program and to verify the application has sufficient financial resources to complete the project. More specifically, the scoring criteria used to evaluate the proposals will include project scope, private investment vs county investment, number of units, location of project, project timeline, and addressing housing need projections outlined in the “Comprehensive Housing Needs Assessment for Adams County”. The committee will submit recommendations to the Adams County Board for final approval and funding authorization.
Upon approval of the project, the owner must obtain all required permits. Mandatory inspections must be allowed during the construction process, as required by code in the jurisdiction of the project. The property owner will also be required to submit an annual inspection of the property on or around the annual anniversary of project completion for a period of five years. The inspection of the property must show compliance with all applicable codes and ordinances within that property’s jurisdiction
Timeline
For a deeper dive into the details of the program, and information needed to apply for the program, please visit the GREDF website.
There will be two training sessions:
The first training will be on April 23rd in the Oakley-Lindsay Center at 4 p.m.
The second training will be held on May 1st at 12 p.m. on Zoom. If you are interested in obtaining the Zoom link, please email Madison Badgley.
Applications are due to GREDF by 4 p.m. on June 18th. Applications can be sent via email to gredf@gredf.org; dropped off to the GREDF office, or sent via mail.
Adams County Board approves GREDF’s nominees for the GROW housing program committee
March 15, 2024
QUINCY (WGEM) -The Adams County Board Tuesday evening and among other agenda items board members approved the GROW Housing Program Committee nominations.
This county housing program aims to create additional affordable housing throughout the county.
The GROW Housing Program Committee nominees were submitted by GREDF and do not include anyone on the county board or city council.
Finance chair for the Adams County Board, Bret Austin said although the number of nominees is higher than anticipated, the committee includes of variety of perspectives.
“I think we had originally had talked about five but, it looks like a pretty good group of people that they have in different, you know, city, county areas. You know, builder groups, things like that,” Austin said.
The seven committee members who were approved will begin in the coming weeks. Austin says the committee will oversee the developer application format and finalization. They will also develop scoring mechanisms to vet applicants. From there, committee members will submit vetted developers to the board for approval.
Realtor says interest in townhome development also highlights low inventory of living spaces in Quincy
March 5, 2024
QUINCY — Max Dancer says the interest in the Brewhaus Townhomes development at Eighth and Jersey is emblematic of the needs of the Quincy housing market.
The 34 townhomes are the result of a $7.5 million project that was greenlighted in March 2023. Happel Realtors was the host of a public open house on Thursday night, and a business and corporate relations open house will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.
Dancer, a commercial real estate broker for Happel Realtors, expects each of the townhomes to be completed by the end of March. His goal is for 90 percent of the units to be occupied by summertime. He believes that figure is attainable because of the low housing inventory throughout the city.
“(The number of affordable homes) is probably even lower now than what it was a year ago,” Dancer said. “We’ve seen the GREDF housing studies come out. Being a realtor and kind of understanding the market, we still have very, very low inventory on the housing side. Take a look at Facebook and type in ‘rentals available.’ Go see how many people are looking for rentals.
“I’d love for every developer to start putting in affordable housing, but I also understand things are expensive.”
Dancer says all kinds of people have shown interest in the townhomes, ranging from QU students and/or their parents looking at housing possibilities for the fall 2024 semester to business professionals, young professionals and people aged 55 and older.
“It’s been a hodgepodge,” he said. “A lot of it is just gauging interest, putting out the feelers and investigating what it really is.”
Dancer said he believes as many as 25 percent of the units will be corporate rentals.
“A business could rent it out for their employees, whether it’s travelers, technicians, maintenance crews, anyone like that who’s probably going to be here on a longer-term basis,” he said. “Then you’ve got intern seasons coming up, so a lot of people are going to be looking for that. There’s not much available to park them in a spot for a few months.”
The two-bedroom, 2½-bathroom townhomes totaling approximately 1,875 square feet will be rented for $2,000 a month for a 12-month lease. Each unit has a kitchen with a stove, microwave, refrigerator, dishwasher and full-sized washer/dryer. They all have one-car attached garages and a dedicated outdoor patio space. Townhome residents also will have access to an on-site fitness center.
Construction began shortly after the Quincy City Council pledged $926,850 in TIF dollars to the project. That money paid for new sidewalks, streetlights and street trees surrounding the development, as well as water and sewer lines. Aldermen also voted to use money from the American Rescue Plan Act to pay for building permit fees, water connection fees and sewer connection fees.
Dancer said the interest in the townhomes is encouraging in many ways.
“I love seeing it, because we’ve got a lot of cool developments going on right now,” he said. “We have the trampoline park. We just got Target done. We have View21 coming, and now we have this project. I mean, if that doesn’t excite you about your community, then what are you going to get excited about?
“A lot of people have driven by here to see how fast this thing has progressed and how fast they’ve gotten done. I think that just shows that this can happen, and it can happen fast. Houses are needed. Apartments are needed. We have a lot of older homes that need a lot of help. You’re going to start fixing up those homes, or you’re going to start building new. That’s what life is now. That’s the world we live in.”
New Adams Co. program takes action to address need for affordable housing
February 16, 2024
QUINCY (WGEM) – Local economic officials say there is a need for housing in the Adams County Area.
The Adams County Board has approved the GROW program, which provides financial compensation to developers to build affordable housing in Adams County
The plan would have landowners redevelop either vacant lots or uninhabited structures into affordable housing units.
Finance Chairman Bret Austin said they are investing $1 million of the American Rescue Plan Act funds into the program and offer a $20,000 non-repayment loan per unit to developers. He said the program focuses on developers either taking abandoned houses or empty lots and turning them into affordable housing family units.
“Those have infrastructure already there. The sewer, the water, the gas, electrics already nearby. So, unlike adding a subdivision on the edge of a town or out in the county where everything’s got to be created. Infill housing has a lot of advantages,” Austin said.
They have partnered with GREDF to help screen the proposals. President Kyle Moore said they will form a committee and come up with guidelines for the proposals. He said the point of the proposals is to bring affordable housing units to the area, which are based on the Adams County Housing Study they put out last year.
He said they have over 600 jobs that pay more than $35,000 open in the area, and only 100 houses on the market. He said the lack of housing hinders economic growth if it isn’t addressed.
“We need single-family houses. We need more affordable houses versus those that may cost $500,000 or $600,000. So those projects which address affordable housing would be ranked higher than something that would be an expensive house,” Moore said.
He said other factors they would consider include the timeline and funding needed. He said programs like these help compensate developers for their building materials, while at the same time meeting the housing needs. He said with rising costs of construction materials this can help a lot.
Moore said they will have the proposals written up and the board will vote on them at their next meeting in March, then it’ll be open to developers to apply.
Austin said after that, they will open the application process, and in June will start awarding projects. He said they want to get started in time for the June construction season.
If you would like to learn more about the GROW program you can call GREDF at 217-223-4313.
GREDF, Adams County Board hoping to bring more housing to area
January 17, 2024
QUINCY, Ill. (KHQA) — Housing has been a long-standing struggle in Quincy, as well as in the greater Adams County area, and local officials are hoping to address the issue.
In partnership with the Adams County Board, the Great River Economic Development Foundation is moving forward with this discussion.
At last Tuesday’s Adams County board meeting, an incentive proposal of 1 million dollars in ARPA funds to offer zero percent interest to developers who plan to renovate housing in the area.
GREDF president Kyle Moore says that there is a significant lack of housing as well as jobs in the area.
“We have a severe housing shortage when it comes to the city of Quincy and Adams County, and on top of that we have over 600 open jobs our goal at GREDF is to make sure our economy keeps moving along and to do that we need people to fill those jobs which means we need housing,” said Moore.
Last month at the GREDF annual meeting, the organization said the main focus of 2024 is housing, and that focus has not waivered.
“We’ve been leading the charge on town attractions to bring more people here, but if we don’t have enough housing units available, we can’t bring people here, we can’t then bring them here to fill jobs, and so we know that’s the number one barrier right now that is keeping our economy from growing at a faster rate than what it already is.”
Moore says that GREDF has developed programs such as the small rental rehabilitation program, as well as the downtown home rehabilitation program to help with the shortage.
He says these have helped immensely in their pursuit.
“The city of Quincy has two housing programs that have really helped keep the supply coming into the market, whether it be the small rental rehabilitation program, the city also has a downtown rental rehab program and those are about 350-thousand dollars a year that they have been investing.”
Moore says that Adams County has 625 open jobs that pay over 35,000 dollars a year, along with 120 units for sale on the housing market.
Moore says that there is a 0.7 vacancy rate when it comes to market rate apartments.
Moore hopes that the board’s approval will fix this.
“Supply continues to not keep up with demand and so that’s where we’re hopeful the county board will invest in housing and increase the number of units that we have available. We know that between now and five years from now, we need another thousand units just to keep up with the demand in the area.”
Published: Jan. 12, 2024 at 6:38 AM CST|Updated: 3 hours ago
QUINCY (WGEM) – John Wood Community College, The Great River Economic Development Foundation and five regional manufacturing companies launched the Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) today at John Wood’s Workforce Development Center.
This is Illinois’ first FAME chapter. JWCC’s President Bryan Renfro said the work-study program is intended to recruit, educate and train individuals into the manufacturing profession.
The FAME program at JWCC is intended to boost advanced manufacturing training in the area.
Students will attend JWCC two days a week and will work three days a week at one of the sponsored manufacturing companies.
“The unique thing about this program is students are employees while they go to college,” said Renfro.
Before working with an employer, the students will get several different manufacturing training.
“Using different types of training simulators ranging from ranging from electrical, mechanical, hydraulics, pneumatics even HVAC,” Renfro said.
Once they get done with the simulators, students will be sponsored by a manufacturing company and will get to use what they have learned in real life.
“They’re going to come here and learn how to work on the equipment learn how to do things that need to be done and they’re going to be working with tradesmen at the facility,” said Knapheide Maintenance and Facility Manager Chuck Makins.
When students are finished they can get right into the workforce with the company they trained with.
“It’s going to run around five semesters for the students, and I believe it’s about 80 hours worth of time at school,” Makins said.
All of the skills they learn in the program will help them advance quickly in their careers.
“Gives them the skills that they need to be promoted rather rapidly through the workforce environment,” Renfro said.
Dot Foods, General Mills, Titan Wheel, Gardner Denver (Ingersoll Rand), and Knapheide are the companies that will sponsor students for the program.
Renfro said they’re expecting to recruit between 15 to 18 students.
He said the college will spend the next few months reviewing applicants.
They expect students to start working with one of the sponsored companies in June or July and students will start classes for the program in August.
To apply or read more information on the program, click here.
Copyright 2023 WGEM. All rights reserved. https://www.wgem.com/2024/01/12/jwcc-gredf-regional-manufacturing-companies-create-illinois-first-fame-chapter/
QUINCY (WGEM) – The Great River Economic Development Foundation says 77 new businesses opened their doors in 2023, a trend they say they want to see continue in 2024 and beyond.
One of those new businesses was Platt Daddy BBQ which opened in April 2023. Owner Jeremy Platt said getting to that point wasn’t easy.
He said they had purchased the building in 2022 and had to remodel the inside. He said construction costs went over budget, and inflation didn’t help. He said startup costs were also high with their fryer’s hood vent costing around $20,000. He said taxes as well tend to take a lot of money from them. He said he was lucky he had some friends to help him get his business started.
“My sister in law who is a finance director for Chaddock, she’s really good with numbers so she made sure I was overly prepared for when it came to that business plan,” Platt said.
He said the downtown community in general is very helpful. He said while he didn’t utilize any community resources, having resources like that available to a business like his is helpful.
With the 77 new businesses, including major ones like Target and Planet Fitness, economic officials at the Great River Economic Development Foundation want to keep the momentum going.
Madison Badgley, the Director of Business Development, said their business start up guide and concierge program have helped many new businesses navigate red tape and state and federal regulations. She said it’s also helped them create plans and know where to go to get help, such as resources and grants. She said they want to continue to find ways to support current businesses, and attract new ones.
“One of the biggest things is we’re always looking for ways to expand upon the Business Concierge program,” Badgley said. “Businesses often are dealt with new changing of employment laws or different laws coming down from the state and federal level and so we are always looking for ways to help them navigate that and continue to thrive,”
She said if they can help current businesses thrive, it makes the area a more business friendly. She said they try to make sure there are resources and help available to help businesses thrive in the area, that way future entrepreneurs know they will have assistance.
the new businesses that opened in Adams County in 2023 are the following:
8te Open
A New Creation Salon
All Puckered Up
Bard Optical
Benson Financial Group
Bin to Bin Mobile Cleaning
Bricktown Inn
CC’s Coffee Bar
CR’s Bakery
Crazy Acres Entertainment
Creative Co. Balloon Design
Enchanted Books
Extra Mile Auto Care
Flawless
Franks
Funky Finds
Games N Grains
Geek E -Services
Golden Collective
Grains & Grounds Brewing Company
Greenhaus Cafe
High Caliber Custom Coatings
High Pressure Power Washing
Home Instead
Hooligans Tavern
ImmunoTek IV
Wellness Studio
Jeni’s Odd Pets
JoJo’s Grooming Pawlor
Karlie’s Bakeshop
Kick it to Kay
Lakeview Wedding Venue
Limitless Medical
Live Well Studio
Luxe Stogie Co.
Maverick’s Landing Zone Lounge & Venue
Modern Social: Media Management Co
Nichols Heating and Cooling
Organize Plus
Perk Coffee Co.
Peters Lawn Care
Planet Fitness
Platt Daddy BBQ Pryor
Homewash Plus
Q-town Kicks
Q-Town Lawncare
Revival Coffee
Rooted Yoga
Roscos Chuck Wagon
Salon Bestie
LLC Severs Orthodontics
Shake Shack
Shandi’s Coffee & Creams
LLC Shear Approval Landscaping
Shelby Job Agency
Strandz Hair Salon
Strategic Management Consulting
Sweet Lady Jane’s Bakery
T-John Lawn Service
Tannie Kakes
Target
The Engraved Hive
The Farm Stand
The Hangout
The Q
The Rodeo
The WearHouse
Tiny Trends Baby Boutique
ToneCraft Media
Trudy’s Trendy Boutique
United Alloy
Verizon
Vessel Fitness
Wahlburgers
Waylon Rhoads Jewelry
Yoga Bee
Your Mamas Food Truck
Copyright 2023 WGEM. All rights reserved. https://www.wgem.com/2024/01/05/economic-development-leader-looks-continue-adams-county-business-growth/
Entrepreneurship is thriving in Adams County!
January 4, 2024
Adams County, IL – Adams County is witnessing significant growth! The collaborative efforts of the Great River Economic Development Foundation (GREDF), Quincy Area Chamber of Commerce and The District are proud to announce that 77 new businesses have opened in Adams County throughout 2023. On behalf of the three organizations, we would like to say congratulations and welcome to our business community! If we inadvertently missed your new business, please reach out to us so we can add you to our records.
Through our commitment to economic development, our organizations continue to explore ways to support the expanding business landscape in Adams County. In 2022, we collectively developed the Business Start-Up Guide, a valuable resource designed to guide entrepreneurs in the development process of their business. The guide is available to walk potential business owners step-by-step through the process of opening their doors in Adams County. The comprehensive guide aims to provide essential insight and practical assistance to businesses in their early stages.
Should you wish to include your business to the list of 2023 new businesses or to receive a copy of the Business Start-Up Guide please reach out to one of our organizations.
Great River Economic Development Foundation: 217.223.4313 Quincy Area Chamber of Commerce: 217.222.7980 The District: 217.228.8696