Welcome to Gorman :: News & Awards

The City of Beloit is closer than ever before to accomplishing a development that would revitalize and transform the historical Fairbanks Flats property.

The City Council approved a resolution for an offer to purchase the Fairbanks Flats, by Madison developer Gorman and Company, in a 7-0 vote at its Tuesday night meeting.

“I know the city is very excited about this project, and to have a developer from out of town take an interest in it is very gratifying,” said Council President Marty Densch.

The approval follows the city's go-ahead and recognition of support for the project in early November, and approvals for rezoning of the property in December.

“The fundamental idea is to rehabilitate the existing buildings in a way that is consistent with the local historic committee, state historical society and the national department for historical renovation,” developer Gary Gorman explained in November.

Gorman's original plan for the property was to create 24 townhouses, which would be rental for the first 15 years, with tenants eventually having the option to purchase their units. While the plan basically remains the same, Gorman said the company is now looking at a plan that would have only 16 townhouses, to create more spacious living arrangements.

Although the offer to purchase represents a step forward for the project, Assistant City Manager Stephen Gregg said it does not signify the actual sale of the property. There are a number of factors that will have to be fulfilled before the city closes on the sale or establishes a developer's agreement, Gregg said, the main one being that the developer must receive an allocation of tax credits through the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA).
“In order to apply (for tax credits), the developer has to have site control, and this essentially gives him that control,” Gregg said.

The application for tax credits is due Feb. 2 and the city should find out whether or not Gorman will receive an allocation by April, Gregg said. It will likely be a competitive process, though.

“There will probably be way more applications than there are tax credits to give out. We may get 100 percent, or we may only get part of it,” Gregg said.

Gorman said the company has not yet finalized the amount they will be requesting in tax credits; the amount allocated to them will depend on the project's budget and the total cost of doing the project, he added. Awards are scheduled to be announced on April 15.

“There's no precise way we can measure how likely we are to receive the tax credits, but the application involves a self-scoring procedure and we're modeling out different scoring at this point,” Gorman said. “We're very excited to move forward with this. We've applied for a $350,000 zero-coupon loan and we can't tell if we've been approved, but we've had some very positive feedback from the WHEDA staff. I'm very optimistic that this will in fact happen.”
If the April 15 verdict shows the project receiving necessary tax credits, the next step would be obtaining the debt and equity financing needed to complete the project and closing on the property with the city, Gorman said, and then beginning construction. In addition, Gregg said a detailed developer's agreement would be established.

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