New Albany donates land for $3.2 million condo, commercial development

Chalfant Industries, owned by Matt Chalfant, has plans to turn the grassy lawn of 32 Bank St. into 13 condominiums starting at around $200,000 with two spaces for businesses on the first floor.

The land, which until one month ago was owned by the city of New Albany, will join two properties Chalfant has owned for two years on Main Street right next to the Bank Street lot, allowing Chalfant’s project to face the busier downtown street. 

Chalfant Industries was the only company to submit a plan in response to an August request for proposals from the New Albany Redevelopment Commission to acquire and build upon the city’s Bank Street property, which has been prime for redevelopment for years.

The city originally bought the lot in 2003 as part of its YMCA project, according to City Attorney Shane Gibson. When project plans changed due to cost, the city sold the property to New Albany Horizons, LLC, for a different retail and residential project. Horizons’ project ran into several problems, including money that developers never paid to the city and uncertainty on Horizon’s part about what the city had planned for the riverfront corridor, according to News and Tribune archives. Eventually, the developers gave the land back to the city around 2016, Gibson said.

The city’s goal for the property has always been for a developer to acquire it, Gibson, said.

“Obviously the economic development of downtown has really been successful over the last few years,” Gibson said. “The board’s job is to facilitate redevelopment. We’re not developers so it’s not really ideal for us to get into the developing world and deal with projects all the time of that kind of magnitude and nature. So, obviously it makes sense whenever we get properties of that nature in our possession to seek out and ask for professionals who know how to do these types of projects.”

Despite being the only company to submit a proposal, the city is pleased with Chalfant Industries’ $3.2 million plan for the property. The proposal was accepted on Aug. 22 and the land was donated to Chalfant as an incentive for construction of the project, (although the project will also have a property tax revenue benefit of nearly $40,000 each year).

“It’s a new residential component that the city doesn’t have in downtown right now,” Gibson said. “And by that, it’s a mixed use on the bottom, a little bit of retail and then the top has condominiums. And while the city has seen an improvement in our rentals, apartments and those things, we don’t have any real sites that come in with an ownership component like a condominium like these are.”

Providing new housing options for downtown New Albany is also the reason Chalfant submitted his proposal.

“There have been a number of people that have said, we want to live in downtown, but we don’t want to rent,” Chalfant said.

And that’s why Chalfant originally purchased his Main Street properties a couple years ago, although their size kept him from building condos on the spots. When the city sent out its RFP this summer, Chalfant decided to get serious about his idea and submit a proposal.

Chalfant’s condominiums will range in size from two bedrooms, two baths at 1,200-square feet to three bedrooms, two baths, at just under 2,000-square feet. His building will top out at four floors, giving some residents river views. Underneath the development, a parking garage will give residents a place to keep their cars.

The outside of the condos will consist primarily of masonry. Chalfant wants the building to look desirable for decades. 

The exact prices for the condominiums haven’t been determined, but once they are, Chalfant said he’ll start taking reservations for the homes.

As for the project’s first floor commercial space, Chalfant hopes that boutique retailers or professional offices will inhabit them.

Construction of the condominiums is expected to start in spring of 2018 after the architectural renderings and necessary engineering is completed. The project will take around 15 months to build.

An Economic Impact Summary completed by the Wheatley Group estimates that Chalfant’s project will have a total economic output of $792,687.

Chalfant Industries has operated in New Albany for over two decades. Its past projects have included the renovation of the former Tribune building and the creation of the Kohl’s shopping area.

“[Chalfant] does good work,” Gibson said.