Concordia breaks ground on first new residential subdivision in 40 years

For more than four decades, Concordia had no significant new residential development until the work of multiple local and state agencies culminated in the Moderate Income Housing Project and the new St. Joseph Subdivision.

Local leaders ceremoniously moved the first golden shovelful of dirt on St. Joseph Circle, at the southwest corner of Highland Drive and 11th Street, around 10 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, to celebrate the subdivision's first home beginning construction next week.

CloudCorp Executive Committee member Kurt Kocher and Concordia City Mayor Chuck Lambertz welcomed and recognized partners to begin the groundbreaking ceremony.

Concordia City Manager Amy Lange also spoke during the ceremony and told attendees what initially pushed this project into reality—community outcry.

Those conversations led Concordia to conduct a housing study and market analysis in 2022, finding that the city was short 245 moderate-income and 12 high-income homes.

City staff then took that information and began looking for new development opportunities, culminating in St. Joseph Hospital's move to a new facility. Once the hospital moved, Lange said the St. Joseph Hospital donated seven acres of land to the city for housing development.

Lambertz said that the opportunity to grow showed how Concordia aims to continue focusing on growth and development.

According to Lange, the project's funding comes from a $650,000 Moderate Income Housing Grant, a $480,000 Kansas Housing Investment Tax Credit and the Rural Housing Incentive District.

Abigail Phillips, the Home-ARP Program Manager at the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation, spoke during the ceremony about Kansas' drive to continue developing rural housing projects and strive toward growing small communities.

Phillips said during her remarks that the State Legislature and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly created this funding opportunity for Concordia and similar communities across the state.

Throughout the project, multiple state, local and private industries rallied around the new St. Joseph Subdivision, and Kocher said he enjoyed seeing the collaboration between all the different entities.

Outside of the projects and partners who laid the groundwork for new homes in the city, Kocher said he's excited to see the community continue growing.

With the ceremony complete and construction beginning next week, Concordia will see new homes for the first time in a decade and the newest residential subdivision in 40 years.

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