NORTH PLATTE, Neb.: The city of North Platte has entered a partnership with the North Platte Area Chamber and Development Corporation to improve housing options.
The city and the chamber have started the Shot in the Arm program to bring 33 single-family homes and 10 duplexes to North Platte by August 2017. Chamber board chairman Brock Wurl presented an incentive check for $8,000 to Willis Roethemeyer for the first home in the program, The North Platte Telegraph reported.
Roethemeyer is partnering with Greg Batt Construction to build nine homes in the city.
The program is offering incentives for housing construction from a $344,000 pool collected from the city’s Quality Growth Fund and the chamber and development corporation’s incentive fund that comes from private businesses in the city.
“The (Shot in the Arm) program addresses all levels of housing throughout the community. You’ve got to have houses to bring people to town and through this program we thought it was worthwhile to bring it forward and, fortunately, the council looked at it the same way,” city administrator Jim Hawks said.
Wurl says that employers have expressed that there are more jobs available in North Platte, but there have not been enough housing options for the people that they hire.
Permits for 19 homes throughout the city have already been issued.
The chamber says the program is expected to generate $7.5 million in new construction, $100,000 in new city sales tax and $250,000 in new real estate taxes. -AP
