The Jefferson City Council recently approved a high priced economic development agreement with a downtown building owner.

The Council approved at their meeting earlier this month a $150,000 ten year forgivable loan for Corner View Properties, with owner Nikki Uebel at 100 and 102 North Wilson Avenue, where ReMAX Legacy and Midwest Behavioral Health are located. City Administrator Mike Palmer says the funds will be used toward the exterior improvements of the building and he talks about how unique this situation is because this type of facade grant requires a 50/50 match with the building owner.

“In this case, we count the money she’s already spent on this building towards the match. So that’s where the $150,000 comes up.”

Palmer points out this item has appeared on previous city council meeting agendas and has been tabled a couple of times. He says one of the reasons for the delay is hammering out a long range plan for the building, which is typical for a building owner to receive the ten year forgivable loan aspect.

“Going back with the owner, the current tenant that she (Uebel) has the health behavioral center, actually occupies almost 75 percent of that floor space, with the possibility of even expanding to even more. That’s very encouraging. We also wanted to have language in there (in the agreement) that the existing apartments upstairs will remain that. So it was just cleaning up some language and really nailing it down.”    

Palmer adds the colonial look that is currently on the facade has preserved some of the masonry work underneath, which will help to match up to what the conceptual design that was done through Main Street Iowa provided.