Thinking outside the box for new growth

McCOOK, Neb. -- Tom and Sherrie McConville both grew up in McCook but after living in Lincoln for 15 years, were ready to retire back in their hometown.

After looking around in McCook, they couldn't find what they were wanted, they said. "The lot sizes were too high for what we wanted to pay," Sherrie said, with she and Tom not interested in an older home they had to fix up.

After surfing the Internet, they came across Harvest Meadows, the new housing development on Highway 6 and 34 on the edge of Cambridge, where lots were given away for free.

They jumped on it, getting their lot for free and buying the one next to it for $5,000. Both lots measured 97 1/2 feet wide by 170 feet deep.

The McCarvilles decided to build their three-bedroom, two-bath home themselves, using Homestead Homes, an owner-builder company that guides homeowners through the complexities of building a house on their own. They then hired contractors for all of the work, including framing, plumbing, electricity roofing, siding, flooring, even indoor trim. Hiring mainly from the Holdrege, Minden and Kearney areas -- getting hold of a contractor in McCook was difficult and the pricing wasn't competitive enough, according to Tom -- their home is now nearly completed.

Tom and Sherrie are thrilled with their new home, even if it's not in McCook, but the free lots were hard to pass up. "It's a good deal," Sherrie said of building their home in Harvest Meadows. "I have friends who want to move back to McCook and something like this would be great for them."

The brisk pace at which the free lots were snapped up surprised even the Cambridge Economic Development Corporation, that in a joint venture, developed Harvest Meadows with the City of Cambridge.

"They went much faster than we had anticipated, said Tammy Sexton, president of the Cambridge Economic Development Corp. "We thought they would go one at a time. " Property was purchased using tax increment financing funds given to the city from the near-by ethanol plant, Nebraska Corn Products. Those funds also were used for water and sewer mains.

The EDC did not pull the trigger on the housing development before getting an anchor tenant, Sexton said, with that tenant being the Anew Travel Center, owned by the same family that owns the ethanol plant, Zeeland Farm Services Inc. of Michigan. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Anew offers 15 pumps for truckers, travelers and locals, a maintenance garage Monday through Friday, automated truck wash bay, snacks, beverages and a driver's lounge. Another business tenant is the nearby Cobblestone Inn and Suites.

With Anew in place, the housing development was next. "Everybody realized (the free lots) was a key reason why it's been so successful," Sexton said, with all of the 18 residential lots now under contract, the last six purchased by a contractor out of Holdrege. Plans are in the works for the second phase of the development, that would include more housing north of the existing development, possibly with again free lots, with room for one or two businesses.

Call it the Homestead Act of the 21st century. The free lots were a novel way to get people to move to Cambridge, Sexton acknowledged, with Cambridge, like McCook, having limited options for housing. "We had to consider the bigger picture, rather than just dollars. Like, how can we keep people close to Cambridge where they can shop and enroll their kids in school. Sometimes you have to find a creative way to make things happen."

Thinking outside the box is also what motivated Terry McCorkle and Bill Davis of McCook, developers behind North Pointe. Situated on 20 acres behind Clary Village on West Q (housing units for senior citizens, still under construction), McCorkle and Davis bought the land from a private individual from Texas. It will offer super-sized lots, almost an acre each at 147 by 185 feet, (regular city lots are 75 by 150 feet), selling for $19,500 per lot. The lots will be developed in two phases, McCorkle said, with six in the first phase and 12 more after that. One lot has already been sold, with construction of a house already in motion.

With water and sewer being installed thanks to TIF funding, Northe Pointe is in response to the lack of executive housing, McCorkle said, for homes built in the $200,000 range. The shortage of housing is impeding growth in McCook, he believes.

"We saw the need and this is an opportunity to create some housing," McCorkle said. "We heard from representatives from Community Hospital, Dayco and the Bureau of Reclamation at council meetings that doctors and other professionals recruited to McCook couldn't find what they wanted. These are people coming from $300,000 homes and they couldn't find what they needed in McCook." The development will be a brand-new neighborhood for individuals who want to live and raise their families inside the city, with city amenities.

Davis, who is also building homes in Harvest Meadows, said North Pointe is good for those wanting new houses to move into.

"It may take a while, but once they see some homes up, they'll see what it's about," Davis said, adding that a spec house may be put up in the future.

In the past, new housing developments in McCook were spurred by growth in industry, such as the railroad in the 1960s and 70s, said Randy Bauer of Gateway Realty.

The housing shortage in McCook is not really a surprise, said Mary Kircher, owner of Welcome Home Realty. "We've been ignoring it for such a long rime and it's something we're going to have to work on," Kircher said, citing North Pointe as maybe a catalyst to get things moving.

As of Sept. 10, 42 houses were for sale in McCook, Kircher said. That's way below the 100 or so houses on the market in 2007, she said, but above the 15 or so a couple of months ago.

Of available housing, 16 houses are going for $50,000 to $100,000, 7 below $50,000 and 19 over $100,000, with three above $400,000. Having three houses over $400,000 is unique for our area, Kircher added.

Many of her clients are two-income families earning between $40,000 to $60,000, she said, looking for what she called "workforce housing," housing between $85,000 to $125,000. But about half the homes in McCook are older homes constructed before 1950, Kircher said, typically with smaller lots and smaller square footage. Because of this, and the lack of choices in houses, buyers in this market "are getting what they need, not necessarily what they want," she said. Most older homes don't have the amenities buyers are looking for, such as walk-in closets, more than 1,000 in square footage, two bathrooms or an open floor plan, Kircher said.

"I tell my clients, work with what you can get," she said. Although many buyers do not want to do major rehabs, they may look more favorably on a home if expensive upgrades like plumbing and electrical are done.

Kircher tells of clients who were working in McCook but living in motels, waiting for a house to open up and not finding anything, moving out of the area. Another client was renting an apartment and bought a house when it came on the market without actually going to see it. "That was scary for me and scary for them, but he was down to the point he needed to get his family here," she said.

A "Community Housing Study" done by the McCook Economic Development Corp. in 2013 included several goals and action steps for the City of McCook concerning housing, including implementing an employer's housing assistance program, with companies directly involved in assisting their employees in becoming homeowners. Ways this could be achieved included locating and negotiating the purchase of a home and providing funding, such as a $5,000 to $10,000 grant/low interest loan for closing costs and down payments.