The Courtyard Apartments in Kalispell are headed for a multimillion-dollar renovation thanks to an allocation of housing credits from the Montana Board of Housing.
The board announced that it would shell out more than $27.6 million in federal housing credits to various organizations around the state. These credits will help finance new construction and rehabilitation projects for affordable housing throughout Montana.
Kalispell received $4.5 million for a rehabilitation project on the Courtyard Apartments, a 32-unit apartment complex run by the Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana.
“This means the world to our community,” Marney McCleary, housing director at CAPNM, said in a prepared statement. “We will be able to improve the Courtyard Apartments, and we will be able to sustain this property and keep it financially and physically viable for years to come.”
The total project investment is expected to be $4.9 million, resulting in 58 jobs and earning $2.4 million in wages.
Other Montana communities receiving this year’s housing credits include Billings, awarded $6.8 million; Butte, $5.2 million; Lewistown, $3.2 million; and Livingston, $5.8 million.
“These housing credits will create more affordable and accessible homes for Montana families, seniors and people with disabilities,” Montana Department of Commerce Director Pam Haxby-Cote stated. “The housing credits allocation process is a valuable financing tool that will allow the development of affordable housing in communities with great need.”
The Montana Board of Housing awards federal housing credits to developers who then turn the credits into construction funds when they are sold to investors. Housing credits allow developers to borrow less money, meaning qualified tenants reap the savings through lower rents, according to the Commerce Department.