Antigo Housing Authority Receives $700k Grant, Going Towards Renovations

The Antigo Housing Authority will use a $700,000 federal grant as a part of its $3.5 million dollar renovations to the Park View Manor complex.
The complex supports low income seniors and those that are disabled looking for a safe and affordable place to live.
Antigo Housing Authority Executive Director Mary Pavek says many of the public housing complexes under the the Department of Housing and Urban Development are getting old and need repair.
The group is using the federal grant along with nearly $413,000 dollars of state tax credits to fund the project.
Pavek says competition for grants is extremely competitive. They failed to get the same grant when they applied for it in 2012.
“We did apply in 2012 and were unsuccessful, so we came back at it this year,” Pavek said. “We knew we had a really good application going in so we decided to ask for the full 700 thousand.”
The 84 bedroom facility will keep a few rooms vacant during renovation. That’s so they can move tenants around in the building during the upgrades. But the group still faces challenges.
“The difficulty is with aging housing stock, such as this, we’re receiving reduced funding, but our costs continue to increase,” Pavek said. “So we’ve got to be able to think outside the box.”
Park View Manor was built in 1973. Pavek says they have been doing minor renovations on the building every year, but major improvements are needed.
“It has gotten to the point where we need to do some major upgrades,” Pavek said. “There are simply not sufficient funds available to address all of those without being able to put together a deal like we’ve done this year.”
Pavek says their group partnered with the Commonwealth Companies in Fond du Lac to pursue the grant. Commonwealth Companies will be the developer and contractor for the renovation project.
They’ll start renovating in February. This is the groups third renovation project in two years.