Salt Lake Council backs loan to Corroon housing project

The Salt Lake City Council gave Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon's affordable housing project its money Tuesday.

The council, in a 5-2 vote, approved a low-interest $850,000 loan to HMG Properties, which is being represented by a development group co-owned by Corroon, his brother and developer Kevin Keating.

The large loan, from the city's Housing Trust Fund, will allow HMG to move forward with an $18.5 million, 200-unit affordable housing project in downtown at 150 S. 200 East.

Some council members were leery of concentrating too much affordable housing downtown because high concentrations sometimes bring higher crime and other negative social issues to a neighborhood.

In the past, the council has used the loan fund to support mixed-income projects that blend market-rate units with low-income or affordable units.

Also some council members expressed concern about the amount of the loan — three times the normal maximum from the city's trust fund.

But a majority of council members noted the project will bring working-class housing to downtown. Others said one of the keys to downtown revitalization is getting more bodies in the downtown area.

"What our downtown needs is more housing," Council woman Jill Remington Love said.

Corroon and Keating say 188 of the 200 apartment units would be available to residents who earn 60 percent of Salt Lake County's median and would have fixed rents ranging from roughly $500 for a studio to almost $900 for three-bedroom units. The other 12 units would be saved for people with even lower incomes and have lower rents.

Corroon and Keating are partners in Urban Housing Partners LLC, which is promoting the project for Omaha-based property owners HMG Properties.

As payment for their time spent lobbying and consulting for the project, Corroon and Keating expect to become partial owners in the project.

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