| By Big Radio News Staff |
Beloit is poised to bring the heat on new housing starts the next few years with at least 275 new residential units already in the pipeline and more to come.
Beloit city officials say in addition to several major apartment developments the city has ushered along that could break ground in 2025 and 2026, two developments coming before the city this week could add at least 195 more new housing units.
Community Development Director Julie Christiansen says developers could move forward on six new housing projects in 2025 and 2026 — plans that include 243 apartment units.
Add to that pipeline two new preliminary residential development plans that hit Beloit’s plan commission this week. They include additions to Eagles Ridge and an add-on at Elmwood Commons, which together could bring 184 new single-family homes.
The developments Beloit is eyeing include both affordable housing and market-rate projects.
They range from a small-scale, four-home, low-to moderate income project planned by nonprofit Community Action to a potential of 139 single-family homes at Eagles Ridge that could move through development phases and into construction by 2026.
Christiansen said the six developments already on the table include plans like the 88-unit Rock River Town Homes planned on Sixth Street. Like some of the projects, the timeline of that development could still hinge on municipal or state tax credits before they go forward.
Some apartment complex projects have gotten provisional OK’s from the city, but they await a developer submitting planned-use development permits, which are public zoning prerequisites that must come before developers pull the trigger on the projects.
Even as some big-ticket projects await critical mass, the city of Beloit reports a significant uptick in overall housing permits. This is as the city has seen 47 permits issued for housing and apartment starts this year — twice the activity compared to the 23 permits a year the city has issued on average since Rock County began to crawl out of the Great Recession in 2008.
This is as the city has worked to spur both affordable and market-rate housing by producing millions of dollars in city tax-increment financing and city tax-incentive programs aimed at market rate and affordable housing developments.
