New childcare, housing developments proposed in Hays

On this episode of the Post Podcast Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares updates on proposed childcare and housing developments in Hays.

 

Transcript:

EDITORS NOTE: Transcripts are provided by an automated service and are not verified for accuracy.

 

 

James Bell 

A proposed daycare and housing project in Ellis County topped the area's economic news this week. From grow Hays, Executive Director Doug Williams stops by to talk about that and more on this episode of the Post Podcast.

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

Childcare is one of the big three that rural America faces, childcare, housing and workforce and workforce. It's kind of tied to childcare and housing and Hays med through the receipt of some grants and things, it's going to put an on campus childcare facility, and I think up to 75 kids, I believe is what the the deal is. So that's awesome news, we have a huge need in our community for child care. And this will go a long ways towards helping that still a lot of work to be done beyond that. But it's big news and great news for Hayes man.

 

James Bell 

Absolutely. Do we know it? And I gotta be honest, I'm not all that familiar with everything that's going on there as well. Do we have they have a timeline or anything in place? Or is this just a commitment to build the facility?

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

I think I don't know what their timeline is. But I know they're eager to get going. And they want to put it on the fast track, whatever that really means in today's construction environment. Because obviously, when you have to build something, workforce and materials, and all those things are a challenge. But I think they they want to get started as soon as they can.

 

James Bell 

You know, and I know I don't want to ask you to speak for them. But I just believe with the conversations that we've had about the childcare piece here in Ellis County, that probably this is a move that was really just kind of self serving, they needed their own staff to have that availability of child care. And we've talked specifically about the difficulties in medical, the medical field with child care, because you've got that weird schedule and, and rotating and all that.

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they have unique needs when it comes to childcare, because they are 24 by seven 365 days a year organization. And they I think at the end of the day, I don't think Hays med really wants to be in the childcare business. But they recognize that they have to control their own destiny and when when their employees cannot find childcare or a provider is closed or whatever that might be, that has serious consequences to an organization that has to take care of people and has to perform surgeries and all of the things they have to do if if their employees can't come to work. That's that's a huge problem. And so they, like many other organizations across the country have just recognized that they have to control their own destiny with this. They're going to put facilities in manage them, and make sure that they've covered their bases in that area.

 

James Bell 

You know, and I'm curious if you want to speak to if they can pull 70 Kids 70 plus into that daycare, what kind of impact is that going to have across all of Ellis County?

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

Well, it helps. But if you know, Sarah Washington is on your show off, and she's heading up this childcare Task Force, believe they've identified a shortage of between six and 700 spots in Ellis County. So 70, or however many is that helps. And it certainly helps Hays med take control of their situation, we still have a large shortage of spots available for child care. One of the big challenges, not only just physical availability of spots, but affordability is a huge issue for different types of workers. When you're talking about anywhere from, I don't know, six today to $900 a month per child for childcare. That's quite a strain on somebody who's not making a lot of money. I mean, and a lot of our entry level jobs are filled by people who are not making a lot of money, but they still have children. And so that's that's the big dilemma is how do we serve those people?

 

James Bell 

Now? Yeah, I think you say, the lower income, I think even middle middle income can be impacted you tacking on $900. If you got three kids, you're paying that every month. That's a bill. Well, at

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

some point, one of the one of the family, the one of the spouses cannot go to work. I mean, it just doesn't make economic sense. So they leave the job market and thus we end up with 2.3% unemployment and and people really struggling to find employees,

 

James Bell 

for sure. No, we've also talked a lot about you're going to your proposal down there on the Hays med campus with the grandparents or the senior housing and then that would have a daycare component as well. I wonder is this part of or is this part of that conversation or is this completely separate? And that progresses or process is still going?

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

Well that that process is still ongoing. We're still working on that project and actually have kind of put it on the front burner right now. We're trying to get some things going. And initially we had some conversations with Hays med because they were very Interested in the daycare component that we had proposed in the community center there on the property north of the hospital. But I think I think at the end of the day, they just felt that they had to move on this themselves. And they couldn't wait on anybody else. We still believe that this project were, as I say, we're moving it to the front burner. The combination of multifamily as well as patio home type construction for primarily targeted to retiree age people, not necessarily restricted to that audience. But then the community center would house the seniors Center, which is currently out by the airport right now. And then the childcare center would there would be a childcare facility there that would hopefully engage some of the retirees in a creating an intergenerational type facility that that could provide a unique experience for children with kind of grandparent type people helping out in there, hopefully some on a volunteer basis where we can figure out a way to maybe offer some lower cost childcare to those entry level workers, lots of details to kind of figure out in that model. But if if we can provide some incentives for a provider with a lot lower cost, rent, or whatever it might be to operate, maybe they can pass some of that along to some of the some of their clients, I guess I'd call them and, and provide some scholarships or something like that. That would be the ideal situation. The economics are difficult to deal with on that. But we have to do something to try and meet that need.

 

James Bell 

For sure. Now, moving on into another big piece of news. This came out of the hay City Commission meeting last night, apparently, there's a developer that wants to put some housing into the Hadley center, correct?

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

That's correct. David Van Doren, the owner of the Hadley center, was in front of the City Commission last night, he's applying for an NIH grant, which is a moderate income housing grant, that the state of Kansas offers, on projects that they that they approve, this requires the landlord to rent to people in the moderate income range of tenant, which means it's believe it's 60% to 150%, of the moderate income, family housing income for Kansas. So I believe it depends on how many are in the family and that kind of thing. This again, would probably be geared more to seniors, their one bedroom, a couple of some two bedroom units, and then some one bedroom units with a little study off of them, but a kind of unique offering and Hadley center, obviously, it's, it's built like a fortress. And they have a lot of amenities there, whether it's a beauty salon, restaurant, massage therapy, people, so all under one roof, you would have all of those things right there. And so he's he's trying to get that project going, it would be in the third floor, and it's about 31 Total Units that he is proposing to do. So that would be a nice project and and a nice addition to the community. And the first step for him was to get the city to approve the grant is actually given to the city. And then they pass it through to the to the developer. And so the city had has to approve a resolution, which they probably will they discussed it last night and at their regular meeting next Thursday, they will, I am sure approve that resolution and move it on so that he can submit his application.

 

James Bell 

Yeah, I mean, without jumping too far ahead and talking about some of the benefits of this to the community. I mean, what's the chances or what's the process look like for him going forward? I mean, is this a sure thing? Or is this kind of what hope but hope it all goes through and works the way we want?

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

Well, it's certainly not a sure thing. The State of Kansas historically is allocated $2 million a year to the moderate income housing grant program. Because of some ARPA funds, and that kind of thing, this year, they've allocated $20 million. So they've got a lot more money allocated to it. They've raised the single award, they'll give I believe it's $30,000 per unit, or up to a maximum award of $650,000. This particular project would qualify for the maximum award of $650,000. But there is a lot of interest in this program statewide lots and lots of applications. There's also a backlog of previous applicants that did not get awarded in the past that are going to be based on my not understanding they're going to be looked at first on this first round. They're going to they're going to do this quarterly these awards this over the next year or so. So it's not a slam dunk by any means. But hopefully he'll he'll see that I know there are some other developers and In Ellis County that are looking at projects that are going to be applying for this, this grant. So we just hope we get our fair share. You know, we out in western Kansas, sometimes we don't always get our fair share, and we hope with this program we do. And actually, just one other item on that it is limited to counties under 60,000. And population. So the big counties are ruled out of this, this program. So that that does help us there as well.

 

James Bell 

I like to hear that, yeah, let them do their own. Those giant those giant Johnson County and Sedgwick County, that's it's a different world, really, than what we deal with out here.

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

Pretty much pretty much.

 

James Bell 

So you know, if this does come to pass, you know, 31 in apartments with that single bedroom kind of size, how much does that actually impact? And how much is that needed to fix the housing shortage we have here in Ellis County?

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

Well, it's kind of like the childcare deal to hospital every little bit helps. When I consistently say when we add inventory to the market, whether it be houses or whether it be spots in a childcare facility. It helps does it solve all our problems? No, it doesn't. But it helps you know, I, one of the things I'm going to talk about at our quarterly luncheon next Tuesday is the the shortage of housing that we have and what the housing study showed us that we just completed in June, the city did. And And essentially, it shows that we've got a shortfall, a hole of about three to 400 units in this community that we need to fill. And if we expect any kind of growth, say it, what I consider a relatively conservative 1% growth rate, we need to add 88 units a year, whether it be single family homes or apartments, we've been averaging 35 to 45 units a year. And that's what's gotten us in this hole. And so will 31 units. solve our housing issues? No. But it'll help. And, you know, obviously, within that whole housing structure, you've got the type of housing that's added to you're constantly having to evaluate what's really needed. Do we need one bedroom units for retirees? Do we need three bedroom apartments and duplexes and things for families? So what specifically do we need? And right now, I would say we need all of the above. But as we move forward, we're going to have to be more diligent and more studious and deciding what what niches Do we really need to fill?

 

James Bell 

Yeah. And you know, there's so many of these projects going on right now. I don't know if you have like a total of how many apartments that are coming online here in the next few years. But we've talked about several of these, like the St. Joseph school and what's going on down there was near the old Washington School and this one. So yeah, there's hundreds of them coming up in the next couple years. Right.

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

And maybe 100. Oh, I'm over estimate. Well, there are projects underway, certainly the Ellis estates project is 42 units, the vandoorne project would be 31 microgram project at fourth and four, it would be 33, or 36. So we do have a number coming on. But unfortunately, like child care in the same as housing, it is not quickly resolved, it takes time to build these things. And I know there's a project at the Presbyterian Church, that a new childcare facility is going to they're going to do some expansion, some work in there, that I believe is going to have 36 spots. And so we are adding to the to the inventory. It just takes time chipping away at the problem. Absolutely

 

James Bell 

like that. Before we move on to this last bit of really cool news. You mentioned the quarterly luncheon down there that you guys are going to host to grow haze, I believe Thursday, Tuesday, Tuesday. At this point. Are you full on that? Are you still looking for some people to attend?

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

We are full with physical attendees. Actually, we're we're over full. Always a few that don't make it for whatever reason. So we'll be okay there. But but it is going to be online as well. So look on our Facebook page, our website and you can see the link and you can watch it on a zoom, call or watch it online if you'd like to if you can't make it down or if if you didn't get your reservation in

 

James Bell 

very cool. Yeah, you know, I regularly get to go to these in the course of my work and always interesting stuff. And this one I think's gonna be really cool because you get to delve into that housings. Stuff that we're talking about here.

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

Yes, column Belzer. assistant city manager is going to be talking about the housing study. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a talk about maybe some solutions and what we're trying to do about it.

 

James Bell 

Very cool. Gonna be a good time. Now let's talk about this last thing. This is kind of a little bit of inside baseball here, but you guys got a grant. We've talked about this on the show for this upcoming microfactory project. Right.

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

We did. We got great news last Friday, actually, that the Patterson Family Foundation, which is a foundation out of Kansas City, founded by Neil Patterson and I can't remember his wife's name. Neil was one of the founders of Cerner, which is the giant software vendor in Kansas. City. And he was from a small town somewhere in Kansas, and I can't remember where. But he, they created this foundation that is dedicated to improving healthcare, education and economic development in small Kansas and Missouri communities. And so we approached them, you know, that the microfactory, we got a $2.6 million base grant. But we know it's going to cost us three and a half to $4 million. And so we approached the Patterson Family Foundation with the idea, they really liked the concept of the microfactory, they're really interested to watch how this works, you know, they're really these don't exist, this is kind of breaking new ground. And there's a lot of people watching it, but they, they liked the idea. And they awarded us a $500,000 grant to be used towards the micro factory. And so that's going to go a long ways towards helping us get that done. And we are they are interested in watching it, because if if successful, they would like to replicate this and other communities across the state. As with the state of Kansas, there, the Department of Commerce is very interested in this as well. So the pressures on we've got to perform on this one, I was

 

James Bell 

gonna say, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes on this.

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

We'll get it done. I'm sure you will had you know, David Klingon, who's our Director of Recruitment retirement did a great job writing the grant for the base grant that we got from the state of Kansas, he replicated that with the Patterson foundation. So he's he's done a terrific job on these.

 

James Bell 

Yeah. Now, we've talked a little bit in the past about the gap. You mentioned the funding a little bit, and there was some some money that you need to raise to put this project together. How much does this grant chip away at that? Well,

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

it covers more than half of the shortfall, we'll call it. We knew from the get go that we were going to have to borrow some money or acquire some additional funds above the base grant, we continue to look for those funds. We know that that, you know even though the tenants in that facility will be paying far less than market rent, probably less than half of what market rent would be it it will produce some income. And we would have some dollars to use towards paying back alone. But we're still we still got some grant applications out there and looking for other ways to finance the shortfall and finish it because like all these projects, where we're concerned that we may run a little over budget to just the way the world is right now. Yeah, how

 

James Bell 

hard is that to even really judge these things? For anybody that's trying to build anything, I would think it's just kind of a roll of the dice

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

virtually impossible. You know, there's just so many factors that are into it. And and you find out that you can't get some particular material you are counting on the substitute is more expensive. And so what do you do? You just have to kind of roll with the punches and make it work?

 

James Bell 

Yeah, no big transformers is a problem right now. Right? A huge one and transformers and water taps I think are both

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

just impossible. Supply chain still continues to be very restricted in certain areas, Transformers for residential construction, take a year to get the transformer for the microfactory they said was 60 to 70 weeks. Ouch. And so fortunately, we've got it ordered. And we do believe that that we may be able to Midwest energy may help us with a temporary if we get to that point and the permanent one still hasn't come in because they they do keep some on hand for emergencies, obviously, but they're for emergencies. So they they don't like to go out and use those but we we are. It's on order and we believe our construction period is probably a good year trying to get it done. So I think we'll be okay there. But you're right. There's just a challenge. Every time you turn a corner you hit another one. Yeah.

 

James Bell 

Well, Doug, we got to get over the news and weather but any other last thoughts where we go?

 

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams 

Gosh, I can't think of anything else. You know, I It's been a big week. All good news. Join us next Tuesday. If you want to via zoom, check us out. I think it'll be interesting information for people. And we're going to just keep plugging

 

 

away