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March 2001 | |||
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Inner City Grocery Store for Des Moines is a Go At last, it is going to happen. After years of hard work, planning and endless meetings and discussions, all of the pieces are now in place for a 35,000 square foot grocery store to be built in the heart of Des Moines' Enterprise Community (EC). A Walgreens will also share this corner. Since the 1993 start of the Des Moines EC, the primary goal of the neighborhood groups, community leaders and many other partners, including the CB team of the Iowa State HUD office, has been to develop a state-of-the-art grocery store within the EC. Senior Community Builder William McNarney began working on this project in 1993 as the State Coordinator through monthly meetings with the EC steering committee. The turning point of the project was in 1998 when he and then CB Stan Quy delivered a detailed presentation on HUD's Section 108 loan program to key city officials. Consequently, the city officials applied for HUD's Section 108 funding, initiating a $1 million loan and a $1 million EDI Grant for the project. The Section108 loan commitment was subsequently raised to $2 million for a total of $3 million in HUD funds towards the project. The Community Builders were instrumental in assisting the city in the search for operators by using the national CB network to gather information on inner city grocery operations in Charlotte, Louisville, Rochester, Akron, and Philadelphia. They presented this helpful information to city officials as a part of their planning development for this venture. Approximately $1.5 million of the original funding for the EC is committed. Private investors group is led by two local African American business leaders have also stepped up with substantial pledges of support. The overall cost of the grocery store is projected at approximately $7.5 million. The grocery operation will create approximately 100 jobs, 25 full time and 75 part time. The developers have agreed to target a large percentage of the available jobs for qualified EC residents. Projected completion date is November 1, 2001. | ||
