Apartment complex developers say Muncie was picked for its potential 'bright future'

MUNCIE, Ind. − Terry Spicer is enthusiastic about Muncie and claims that as president of the affordable housing division and senior vice president of business development for Horizon Companies of Atlanta, he has settled on building a 276-unit apartment complex in south Muncie to enjoy the prosperity headed our way.

"We see the promise of Muncie," Spicer told the Star Press after a city council meeting in which a tax abatement for his development was introduced. "Muncie is on the rise."

Spicer said he sees the same pattern of activity happening here with regard to economic development as it was in Huntsville, Ala., before a similar project was built there by his company.

"Muncie does things right," he said.

The development is called Michael's Place Apartments to be built near the corner of Tillotson Avenue and Memorial Drive. Mayor Dan Ridenour said the complex would take the space in the area not already occupied by Speedway and Dollar General, positioned between the retailers and a planned park that carries the name Tillpond at this point.

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"We are owner-investors," Spicer told the council. "We build, we serve, we stay."

The development plans call for tennis and basketball courts and an outdoor swimming pool, as well as a club house. But the owners said it was "affordable" housing financed through the sale of tax credits through a federal government program that goes by the acronym LIHTC,  Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. The Housing and Urban Development program uses the sale of the tax credits to finance construction of the apartments.

Horizon has created numerous apartment communities, mostly across the southern United States with about 6,000 units under management. The dwellings come with a rent cap as part of the HUD program. The developers could not say what the rent would be at this time but said they would return to let council know the rent estimates. In Muncie, the apartments would be at a B+ grade level, said Candace Spicer, who is the director of planning and Urban development for Horizon.

Candace Spicer referred to the proposal as "multi-family" housing. It will have 90 three-bedroom units, 72 four-bedroom units, 84 two-bedroom apartments and 30 one-bedroom apartments.

Raj Valluri, vice president of development for the company said that apartments are well put together with good material but they are not "A grade" apartments.

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Plans also call for the installation of 12 electric vehicle chargers at the apartment complex.

Troy Watters, superintendent of Beech Grove Cemetery, spoke to the board as a citizen, he said, and told of how pleased that the city was getting the area where he grew up, cleaned up.

"It excites me to see this," he said. "Right now you've got nothing but a grown up woods. Two local men tried to put up a trailer park in there. Now foundations are in there. Parts of garages are in there. There are things going on there that shouldn't."

He said Muncie needs more projects like this proposal.

"This, to me, would be beautiful there," Watters said.

But Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, said the reasoning given by Terry Spicer for picking Muncie was not a good one.

The city is not on the verge of exceptional growth, he said. Muncie's has been in long term population decline for 50 years. It's been suffering a demographic decline with all of East Central Indiana for 70 years. The idea that low income housing is going to help that situation is "ludicrous," Hicks said.

He said the argument that Muncie housing stock is too old to attract new people here gets the problem wrong.

"There is not a single house in Muncie that if you moved it to Chicago would not bring $500,000," Hicks said.

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It's the demand for Muncie itself that must increase to promote city expansion. And he added that the community will probably grow to some degree in the next couple of decades because of its location close to the Indianapolis metropolitan area, a place that has had decades of expansion.

Good schools attract families and can help create growth, Hicks said. And he complimented Ridenour for putting some of the city's resources into the schools because that can make a positive difference in the long term.

"The schools system is not something that is going to attract residents," he said. While it has improved since Ball State has taken over management of Muncie Community Schools, "the bottom line is it's still not average."

"It's not happy news," Hicks said. But he contended we could do better "if people spoke more plainly and honestly about the challenges we're facing."

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Southside apartment developers expect Muncie market to be hot