Oakridge is planning a $15M+ Cynergy project

Driving the news: The Des Moines City Council last week gave preliminary approval for a $25,000 federal grant that the city will allocate to help Oakridge acquire the 1.1-acre site at 1230 Oakridge Drive.

• While that's a small share of the roughly $966,000 land cost, it's a critical step because it signals city support, DeJear said.

Zoom in: The development, dubbed Cynergy, would turn a former parking lot into a mixed-use building with a ground-floor commercial space and three to four stories of housing above.

• The first-floor occupants would include services related to financial and physical wellness, as well as small businesses focused on building workforce pipelines.

State of play: As of 2024, the U.S. had only 35 affordable units for every 100 extremely low-income renters, with Iowa (39) near the national rate, according to a report published last year by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.

• That represents a shortage of 7.1 million affordable homes for extremely low-income renters, including nearly 62,000 in Iowa, according to the coalition.

The intrigue: The property at 1230 Oakridge Drive is owned by MainFrame Studios, a nonprofit that leases about 200 studios to artists in a nearby building.

Inside the room: Polk County is also reviewing options to support the Oakridge project, Supervisors Chairperson Matt McCoy tells Axios.

What's next: Oakridge expects to complete land acquisition in the coming weeks, after which it will launch a fundraising campaign.

• Project organizers aim to break ground as early as 2027 and to complete the project within about a year.