Wednesday, January 20, 1999
Newport misses out on funds
State rejects housing grants on 2 projects
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT — City officials must look for other methods of funding a pair of proposed housing projects after learning that the state has denied grant applications for both projects.
Newport Economic Development Director Pat Wingo said the grant requests, totaling nearly $2 million for a 50-unit apartment project at Ninth and Monmouth streets and a 12-house project called Liberty Row on Eighth Street, were turned down primarily because the per-unit costs were too much.
“Land acquisition costs were combined with unit costs, and the figure was just too high,” Ms. Wingo said Tuesday. “There was no difference in the level of amenities in the apartments, regardless of the income of the person renting.”
The city, working with the Newport Housing Authority and development consultant Jan Rubin, sought grants that would generate additional pri vate capital amounting to $8.5 million to convert a trio of buildings at Ninth and Monmouth into large one- and two-bedroom apartments.
Eric Avner, the city's Main Street coordinator, said failure to obtain the community development block grant money does not in any way mean the end of the projects.
“We'll figure out some other way of doing it,” he said. “We are definitely still looking at the corner of Ninth and Monmouth. That building has a new facade which was paid for with a facade grant. It would almost be a disservice to the community to ignore the building now.”
The original facade of the former Marx building, which most recently housed Trixie Delight's adult entertainment bar on the street level and apartments on the upper three floors, was exposed and restored with grant money obtained by the bar's owner, Linda Brown.
Although the city failed to obtain the housing grants for Ninth and Monmouth and Liberty Row, Mr. Avner said there is still the possibility that Newport will receive all or part of a $2.2 million grant sought under the Renaissance Kentucky City program.
That money would be used for the Streetscape project to upgrade the appearance of Monmouth Street between Fifth Street and 11th Street, including removal of overhead wires, replacement of sidewalks and curbs, and addition of light posts and trees.
“We already have $200,000 for the 900 block of Monmouth,” he said. “We have held up on starting that project until we know if we'll get the grant money for the rest of project from Fifth to 11th. We feel we should do the entire job at one time if we can. If we don't get the additional funding, we'll start work on the 900 block in the spring.”
Mr. Avner said city officials should know by the end of February at the latest whether the grant has been approved.
Newport also has applied for grant money from the state's Heritage Council to study and plan possible national registry of the L&N Bridge.
As part of the Third Street Redevelopment project, the L&N, which is a dual set of bridges for rail and auto traffic, is to be converted to a pedestrian bridge. The railroad portion has not carried any train traffic for several years.
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