Area still short on housing

CELINA - Various community stakeholders agree Celina and the surrounding area are in desperate need of new housing, a problem that if left unaddressed will hinder economic growth.

However, some of those officials who spoke with the newspaper looked at the housing shortage from differing viewpoints - that of accommodating local baby boomers wanting to downsize and that of attracting fresh college graduates and other professionals to meet the needs of area businesses.

"People working here, I hear all the time that they're having to go to other communities to find housing because we just don't have enough here," said Celina Mayor Jeff Hazel.

Properties are selling for more than their listed price, and many are under contract prior to going on the market. Homes are often being snatched up within a 24- to 48-hour window after hitting the market; very rarely does a house not get multiple offers shortly after being posted, said Deb Borns, a broker and owner of Lakeshore Realty.

The demand for apartments is hot, too.

"The last (apartment) vacancy I had, I had 30 phone calls in one week," said Eric Kramer, Borns' business partner.

New rental units are needed across the board for all age groups and demographics, Borns said.

"You could just about build anything right now and you'd get it rented," Borns said.

Hazel and Borns noted the area lacks a formal database of rental units and vacancies.

"Probably the biggest problem … is knowing where there are apartments and where there are availabilities," she said.

Borns and Kramer specifically approached the shortage of apartments and housing from the angle of aging residents, many of whom are looking to downsize for convenience and ease of living. With a dearth of smaller home options, they're turning their gaze to condos and apartments, they said.

"They don't want to worry about snow removal. They don't want to worry about landscaping. They don't want to worry about the fact that their furnace isn't working. They want the easiness of life," Borns said.

Kramer said most condos are located along Grand Lake.

"So you get a vast majority of them being sold to out-of-towners that are using them for lake properties," he said.

And roughly 66% of condos are on second and third floors, making them out of the question for folks with physical ailments.

"If you're a senior, you don't want stairs," Kramer said.

The only option left on the table, aside from assisted living or nursing homes, is apartments.

"So they're moving into apartments which there's a tremendous shortage and consequently that's the big push. The big push is those types of tenants, not the young people," Borns said.

Her partner echoed that assertion.

"The housing shortage has caused even more of a panic on the rental properties. You've got people moving out of their homes and wanting to move into rentals and they can't find rentals," Kramer said. "I've been looking for a year for my in-laws who can no longer do stairs, just to get them into a nice apartment that's no maintenance and no steps."

Kramer and Borns cited numerous obstacles in the way of new apartment developments, including high construction costs and rising real estate taxes that together diminish the chance of profit.

Plus, there's simply not as much land available to develop as there was in the past.

"Even on the south side of the lake, all of a sudden you're starting to see a lot of lots getting built on," Kramer said. "Where there used to be a lot of lots, now it's starting to look a little scarcer."

Father-and-son apartment developers Andy and Drew Charlson, working under the banner of Mid America Properties, recently wrapped up the third and final expansion phase at The Meadows at Grand Lake. The apartment complex along Meadowview Drive features one- and two-bedroom units on the northeast side of Celina.

Andy Charlson spoke about the development.

The three phases resulted in the creation of 88 new apartment units, raising the total number of units at The Meadows to 148. The site is completely filled, he said.

Charlson said 16 of the new units were designed for seniors. However, roughly 60% of all the new units are occupied by seniors, he said. The majority of the senior renters moved to The Meadows after selling their homes.

Asked about the current housing climate, Charlson said the area needs affordable housing. Yet he too pointed to steep construction costs and higher real estate taxes as barriers to new development. He said taxes on his properties have risen 14.7% in part from the new Celina City School building project 0.5-mill levy.

Charlson said building costs have spiked significantly compared to when he first started to plan the apartment complex expansion.

"In round numbers it would take $150,000 a unit to build right now," he said.

At that price, the rent of an apartment, depending on its size, would come out to $700 to $900 a month.

"And who's going to afford (that) in Celina?" he asked.

Hazel and Mercer County Community Development Director Jared Ebbing still believe Celina is ready for apartment complexes with amenities such as common areas and fitness rooms, the kind of living arrangements college graduates and millennials seek when searching for a new town in which to start a career.

Ebbing bemoaned the missed opportunities of local businesses that could have cornered a certain market or vastly expanded production if only they had found enough employees.

Such an apartment complex, the same kinds that are springing up in big cities where it's easier to raise capital, could provide a sense of community and inclusion that college graduates and professionals from outside the area are seeking, he said.

The area is welcoming and warm yet can still feel intimidating to an outsider.

"That ready-made community … could help lessen that anxiety," he said.
  Ebbing said he's never met someone who regretted moving to Mercer County.

"They all say the same thing. 'Boy, we moved here twenty years ago, had no connections and it was the greatest move we ever made.' I hear that story over and over and over again," Ebbing said.

It's all about helping that person get through the first anxious months here.

"And if that anxiety overrides their decision to take the job in the first place, then we may lose them," he said.

In September 2019, Celina City Council acted to rezone a 5.42-acre tract between Best Western Hotel and CJ's HighMarks from B-3 community shopping center to R-O residence and office. The move was in anticipation of a Dayton/Cincinnati-based developer that had planned a 120 townhouse-style apartment complex designed to attract professionals. The development was to have the types of amenities commonly seen in urban settings.

Hazel said plans for the development unraveled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There was local investors going ahead. Well, then the pandemic just really kind of shattered everything for them and then the cost got too much for them," Hazel said. "I'm disappointed because I feel like they could have built it and it would have already been full."

Hope is not lost as a local developer may step in and pursue a similar project, Ebbing said.

"There's still interested people in it, interested companies, interested investors," he said. "If it ends up being a local developer then maybe that would help it get going sooner than later."

However, Ebbing cautioned that inflationary pressures and the looming prospect of interest hikes give rise to economic uncertainty. Someone would have to pull the trigger this year before interest rates get too high.

"I think it will pay off for the community. I think it will pay off for the businesses. I know it will pay off for the people looking at places to live, and I think it will pay off for investors that want to invest in something that's not yet here," Ebbing said.

Ebbing is confident a community-based apartment complex would satisfy multiple pressing needs if the right combination of people, companies and investors come together not just for a return on investment "but for the good of the community and the good of the future of their own business growth."