By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
After several months of what appeared to be a stalled project last month, construction on a new Archer House made a significant breakthrough when the Northfield City Council approved a Tax Increment Financing District. The developers were experiencing a financing gap and were unable to move forward on the project; with the help of the city, they can now begin construction. Tax Increment Financing or TIF is a common tool by local governments to encourage development by offering landowners a portion of their taxes back to pay for the project. Here’s Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig:
“Why Does the State give that? It’s because often when you get into redevelopments and call include, demolition might include soil corrections or issues like that. It gets to the point where the private sector just can’t pencil it out for a project. Or You Might Have other community goals to meet.” – City Administrator Ben Marting on the KYMN Morning Show
The list of TIF Districts in Northfield before the Archer Project. Note that this is also before the decertification of Auroa Pharmaceutical and Hiley Neff Housing Development, both of which were decertified early. From the 11/12/2024 Northfield City Council Meeting
As of October 31st, the estimated cost of building the new Archer would be $20.7 million. Private loans and equity from the project could finance about 75% of the project, but the developers still need to find the remaining funds. TIF would be one way to close most of the gap, and in the project’s expected life, the TIF district will return approximately $3 million to the developers.
Information about the construction projects budget. From the 11/12/2024 Northfield City Council Meeting
As part of a TIF agreement, the City of Northfield can negotiate that certain items must be included in the project. One of the most important items is public restrooms on both the Division Street side of the building and the Riverwalk side. Also included in the project would be public access to a plaza along the Riverwalk. Northfield Mayor Rhonda Pownell commented that the community is lucky to have a local development team:
“It just be really grateful that we have a homegrown development team. They are committed long term to our community, and I’m not sure if there would have been somebody from outside the community that wasn’t For Northfield’s success.” – Northfield Mayor Rhonda Pownell on the KYMN Morning Show
The developer of the site, Chris Kennelly, provided a brief overview of the project design:
“So it’ll still be commercial main. We’re very excited that we’ve got a great restaurant user who wants to take the main chunk of that, so they’ll probably end up being with one large restaurant and then another commercial retail space all fronting division. Our second floor is going to be around 19 units of extended stay and We’re calling them those that will be furnished units. They can be rented out for two months at a time or three months at a time, let’s say, to a traveling professor.” – Developer Chris Kennelly on the KYMN Morning Show
We will have a future story covering the design more in-depth and will keep you posted about any construction updates.
The Council ultimately voted to approve the TIF District. The Heritage Preservation Commission previously approved the building’s design. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2025.
