The City of Crawfordsville and Montgomery County are working with a developer who wants to acquire the Culver Hospital building, which has been vacant for nearly 30 years.
The city is pledging $150,000 to Sustainable Solutions to buy one of the three parcels that make up the property. The county is helping the nonprofit with the other two parcels, which have issues with back-taxes. The plan is to rehab the building for affordable housing.
Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton says the city’s investment will get rid of an eye sore as well as bring in construction jobs and new families to the city.
“This puts it back as a positive, tax-producing property,” he says. “In the past, the city has looked at trying to demolish the site and clean it up.”
Barton says there’s a misconception that there are large pots of money available to do that kind of removal, but could not find funding after more than a year of looking.
Sustainable Solutions is putting together an application for housing tax credits, which would finance the redevelopment project. Barton hopes the work is done in the next three years.
The grant money is the city’s only financial commitment. Barton thinks that’s a good investment, because residents want something done at the property.
“There’s no perfect solution,” he says. “There are pros and cons in every solution out there, but this is really the only workable solution we could come up with and we think it will serve us well.”