Go Zone Program Providing Limited Help to Rebuild Lost Rental Units on Coast
by Keith Burton - GCN   12/29/06

A program designed to provide tax incentives to encourage developers to build new apartments in the Katrina Disaster Zone in Mississippi is doing little to restore the thousands of lost apartments on the Coast that were destroyed by Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005.

The Go Zone program was passed by Congress in 2005 shortly after the hurricane to provide tax incentives for businesses to encourage redevelopment in the region. In Mississippi, the area included nearly 60 counties, but most of the damages were along the Coastal counties.

Hurricane Katrina destroyed almost 10,000 rental units on the Coast according to a recent study by the Mississippi Center for Justice, most of which were in Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties.

Mississippi Home Corporation (MHC) reported that this past September 1, that the agency awarded $28 million of Housing Tax Credits to developers. The MHC said that the incentives should stimulate $296 million in housing development and produce 2,500 units of housing statewide. The agency said that the allocation was specifically  targeted to address the acute housing shortage on the Gulf Coast. But only 866 units of the 2,500 apartment units mentioned above will be built within the three Coast counties.

MHC awarded tax credits for the following developments, listed by location:

Canton - Kingston Place II, 122 units

Carthage - Lincoln Estates, 55 units

Choctaw - Choctaw Homes I, 25 units

Collins - Collinwoods Estates, 40 units

D’Iberville - Park at Leymoyne Apartments, 160 units

Greenwood - Parkway Place, LLC, 65 units

Grenada - Sundown Gardens, 63 units

Gulfport - Sawgrass Park Apartments, 204 units
                 Summerville Townhomes, 150 units
                 Angela Apartments, 60 units
                 Roxbury Cove, 30 units

Hattiesburg - Burketts Creek, 170 units

Horn Lake - Parkway Place, 48 units

Jackson - Forrest Hill Place, 170 units
                 Timber Falls, 155 units
                 Shaw Estates, 48 units
                 Bristol Park II Apartments, 128 units

Jackson County - Lexington Park Apartments, 120 units

Koscuisko - Hickory Hills Apartments, 48 units

Laurel - Shadowood Park Apartments, 112 units

Madison County - Camden Park Apartments, 96 units

Natchez - Audubon Terrace, 65 units

Ocean Springs - The Colonnades, 56 units

Pass Christian - Camille Village Apartments, 86 units

Pickens - Cedarwood Village, 32

Waveland - Waveview Place, 100 units

Wiggins - Wiggins Estates, LLC, 40 units

Yazoo City - League Cove and Roberts Estates, 40 units

Related Story:

 Go Zone Business Tax Incentives go to Familiar Names - GCN