Affordable senior housing in West Dundee could be complete next year

Developers are moving forward with the construction of an affordable senior housing community in West Dundee nearly three years after the project was introduced.

Missouri-based Gardner Capital is building a 61-unit facility at 969 W. Main St. for residents 55 and older. The four-story housing complex, called Spring Hill Senior Residences, will contain one- and two-bedroom independent living apartments with rent costing between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income, development manager Kaeli Kimes said.

"Many of West Dundee's long-term residents are beginning to age in place and do not wish to move outside the area to find senior-oriented housing," she said. "Future residents of the Spring Hill senior living community will have good access to retail, public transportation and health care services."

The facility is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019, depending on weather conditions and other unforeseeable challenges, Kimes said. Developers have begun preparing for construction, which will begin once temperatures rise.

The property manager, Housing Opportunity Development Corp., will handle leasing efforts once the project nears completion, she said.

Project plans, which have been in the works since March 2015, originally called for creating an 85-unit, 105,000-square-foot building. Gardner Capital later reduced the facility's footprint to nearly 80,000 square feet after the 2016 presidential election led to a nationwide devaluation in low-income housing tax credits, company representatives said.

Making sure the downsized project is still feasible "took some time," Kimes said, as did securing financial partners and reacquiring village permits and approval. The roughly $21 million facility is receiving funding from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, the ComEd Energy Efficiency Program and Raymond James Financial, she said.

The project, Gardner Capital's first in the suburbs, is expected to serve an unmet need for senior housing in the area, said Tim Scott, West Dundee's community development director. Spring Hill Senior Residences could later be complemented by an assisted living and memory care facility, plans for which are in the works, he said.

"Although approved for some time, the village is pleased to see that the (Spring Hill) project will soon begin in earnest," Scott said. "The development will offer a nice new housing option for the community."