The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
On Wednesday, August 6 the board voted to rename the three-story, 21,000-square-foot building containing 30 affordable units Anthracite Place. The project is slated for the lot next to the Crested Butte True Value at Sixth and Belleview. Part of what makes the project doable is the fact that developers are using tax credits to help finance the plan. GVRHA executive director Karl Fulmer explained that tax credit awards are distributed in 10-year streams of credits to whatever investor/corporation buys the credits. “Tax credits are awarded to Colorado projects during two very competitive awards sessions every year,” he explained. “Credits are distributed to equity groups on an annual basis for a 10-year period; thus, the $539,165 in annual credits awarded Anthracite Place equals a total credit stream of almost $5.4 million. Marketing and selling credits determines exactly what price on the dollar (ninety cents or, possibly, more) is paid into a particular project. For example, ninety-two cents for credits at Anthracite Place would create a direct subsidy of $4.96 million into the design, construction and development of the property.” He hopes to have the tax credits secured within a month. “We’re finalizing the sale of the credits in the next three to four weeks,” explained Fulmer. “We’ve currently narrowed the equity group list from eleven to three or four. We should go to contract negotiation for the sale by mid-September.” Fulmer said that just because the building changed names doesn’t mean it is off schedule. “The week of July 28 marked the re-start of the design process for the property. Everything should be following fairly closely to the original schedule.” That schedule calls for the design process to start later this fall and construction to begin in the spring. The units should be open for rent by the spring of 2016.
