Garden Court – Page 5 – Easterday Construction Co., Inc.

Culver Garden Court Ground Breaking Ceremony

April 23, 2011April 8, 2011 by

Today we had the ground breaking ceremony for Culver Garden Court. As you can see in the picture, actual ground breaking occurred over a week ago and we already half completed rough grading and have the building pad in place. There was a pretty good turnout including dignitaries from Culver and Plymouth as well as a representative from Congressman Joe Donnelly’s office. I was pleased that Culver Council President Ginny Munroe attended along with Council Members Ralph Winters and Ed Pinder. The Culver Town Manager, Michael Doss, was there as well as the Culver Clerk Treasurer, Casey Howard.

Culver Garden Court, Inc. is a HUD 202 project. It is a 13 unit assisted living facility for senior citizens. It is sponsored by Garden Court, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation located in Plymouth which has worked to provide affordable housing to Marshall County residents for over 40 years. It will be the 7th Garden Court built by Easterday Construction. We have been working for years trying to find suitable property for a Garden Court in Culver and are extremely pleased that the Culver Town Council had the foresight to help with this project and that Wade and Claudia McGee chose to make property available for this project.

Our contract with Garden Court and HUD allows us 12 months for completion, but we will strive to complete work in the 9-10 month range. We will work to have the facility weathered in quickly which will allow us to proceed with interior finishes even in inclement weather conditions.

Culver Garden Court Ground Breaking Ceremony

March 27, 2011 by

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Mark Your Calendar!

As you may be aware, Garden Court, Inc. was awarded a grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop a 13-unit residence for the elderly under the Section 202 Supportive Housing Program.

This new development will be known as the

Culver Garden Court

701 S. Main St., Culver, IN 46511

Please join us for the

Ground Breaking Ceremony

Date: Friday, April 8, 2011

Where: 701 S. Main St., Culver, IN 46511

Time: 2:00 p.m.

Speaker: Rev. Ronald Liechty, President of Garden Court, Inc.

R.S.V.P. To: Jodi Gonce @ Real Estate Management Corporation
Phone: 574-935-3600

Culver Garden Court Start-up

May 2, 2011March 25, 2011 by

Culver Garden Court had a project closing yesterday at the HUD offices in Indianapolis. FINALLY!!! The closing for this project was similar to a closing on a house where the mortgage is finalized, the previous property owner receives a check and the ownership transfer is made. In addition to this, the HUD closing for this project included the finalization of contracts for the construction of the new Garden Court facility. I was back in the office about 4:30 yesterday afternoon and the first round of purchase orders were sent releasing the surveyor, excavator and concrete contractor to begin work.

HUD requires the project to break ground within 10 days. This should not be a problem at this time of year. Everyone has been waiting for this project to be released for months. There will be a separate ground breaking ceremony on April 8th at 2:00pm for anyone interested in attending. Odds are there will be actual construction going on in the background at that time too.

The project has a 12 month time line. We anticipate being out of the ground within a couple of months. We should be weathered in before winter allowing interior finishes to be completed regardless of the weather.

You can see a previous entry on Culver Garden Court here.

Culver Garden Court – Rezoning

March 13, 2015February 4, 2011 by Kevin Berger

The Plan Commission met on its regular third Tuesday night last month. Rezoning the newly annexed properties on the south side of Culver was on the agenda. Unfortunately, they did not have a quorum. The meeting was rescheduled for the following Monday (Monday of last week) and the hearing was held then. I was unable to attend the hearing as I had a scheduling conflict. I sent a letter of support (see it here) and I understand the rezoning was passed without remonstration.

I was a little surprised that the Plan Commission did not follow the Comprehensive Plan recommendations which I would have interpreted to suggest this area should have been zoned R-2. The Plan Commission did zone the northern third, which included the McGee Property and the newly subdivided Garden Court Parcel to R-2 as per the agreement with Mr. McGee, but the remaining 2/3rds were zoned R-1. My letter cited various references in the Comp Plan, but my source on the Plan Commission said that the property owners in that section preferred R-1.

Unfortunately, I think this may have been a lack of understanding or foresight on their part. The basic difference between the two zonings is the density requirements and the allowance for multi-family development under R-2. There is very little that can be done under R-1 that can’t be done under R-2. (See the Use Matrix in the Zoning Ordinance here).

A continuing theme in the Comp Plan is affordable housing. The Comp Plan is extremely dated as it was completed over 10 years ago and the housing issue has not been corrected in the past decade. Allowing higher densities in housing is one way that housing can be made more affordable. Higher densities are also a goal of the green movement as it promotes more efficient use of land and infrastructure.

In any case, I’m pleased to see that the Plan Commission has taken the steps to upgrade the zoning in this area and plan for future development. The Town Council has taken steps to extend water and sewer to the northern third of this area. That project will be underway this Spring and was necessary for the construction of the Culver Garden Court. I think this is a positive step for the area and may be the first step towards seeing additional housing starts in Culver.

Culver Garden Court/Bureaucracy Rant

December 19, 2010 by

It seems that a day doesn’t go by that I don’t get asked about the status of the Culver Garden Court Project. I’m not sure why I should expect this phase of the project to go any smoother since it took years of promoting the project before finding a generous property owner willing to work with Garden Court for a site. Now that we have a site and the Town is behind the project and HUD has approved the funding, we have hit another wall of bureaucracy.

It is particularly frustrating when President Obama has been talking about expediting shovel-ready projects for the past two years. Is this how you expedite a project???

Time line:

July 2010 – Project Funding Announced: Generally on past projects the funding is determined and announced in the Spring, often in time for us to have an early to mid-summer start. This year the announcement was delayed until late July.

August 1st– Garden Court, Easterday Construction and B.A. Martin Architects meet to discuss finalizing plans. Garden Court attorney applies for the 501(c)3 status with the IRS. (HUD requires that each Garden Court be its own, separate, 501(c)3 non-profit entity.)

August 15 – Plans complete and sent out for bid.

September 1 – Prices in. Budget met. Easterday Construction is ready to go! No 501(c)3 status. Can’t close on property.

September 15 – HUD would REALLY like to have this project close before their year end of September 30th. Can they help expedite the 501(c)3 approval with the IRS? No.

September 30 – HUD year end passes. No 501(c)3 status. Project can’t close.

October 31 – Another month passed. No 501(c)3 status. Project can’t close.

November 30 – Another month passed. No 501(c)3 status. Project can’t close.

December 10 – We had been nursing hopes of still starting but Winter hits with a vengeance. Even with a closing, we would not be able to start, but… No 501(c)3 status. Project can’t close.

Present – As of this time, nothing has changed.

This project is not funded with “stimulus” money. This project falls under HUD’s regular budget. Washington is talking about expediting projects and they can’t even get their regular projects out the door in a timely fashion! Is it any wonder that stimulus money remains unspent 2+ years after it was budgeted?

There are a lot of good people involved with Garden Court Projects. The people at the local level are extremely dedicated to making these projects above and beyond the norm and the genuinely care about their elderly clientele. The Open House for the LaPaz Garden Court we just finished was heartwarming as usual, seeing all of those involved come together in the celebration of a new facility. The new residents were there to help celebrate and seemed thrilled with their new home. And it is a home. Garden Court strives to make it so.

My understanding is that the initial hold up with HUD’s funding was not at the local (Indianapolis) level. The people at HUD in Indy have been wonderful to work with on the last couple of projects. They seem to particularly like Garden Court projects and make a point to introducing the Garden Court representatives to their superiors at HUD when we are there for closings. Our site inspector for LaPaz Garden Court, Vera Atha, was knowledgeable and showed genuine interest in how the final product would serve the elderly residents. This hasn’t always been the case and it was refreshing! We were pleased to hear that we will be working with her again on the Culver project.

The hold up with the IRS is puzzling. As mentioned above, every one of the Garden Court properties is its own 501(c)3 corporation , so this isn’t something new nor is it an unfamiliar entity making the request. The Garden Court attorney has done this in the past, so there should be no issues with paperwork. To the best of my knowledge there hasn’t even been a request for additional information. We are assuming that now that we are into the holidays, it is unlikely that there will be any movement on this until after the first of the year.

To repeat, President Obama wants to expedite shovel-ready projects! How much more shovel-ready can you get??? To paraphrase the MasterCard Commercials:

Project Funding in place? Check!
Property under contract? Check!
Plans complete? Check!
Municipality requirements met? Check!
Budget met? Check!
Contractor ready to start? Check and double CHECK!
One piece of paper from the IRS that is currently holding up the entire project? PRICELESS!