CMCA construction project to add 40 affordable housing units to Jefferson City
Marie Moyer
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
An open lot in west Jefferson City is paving the way for affordable housing opportunities.
Several groups including members of the city government, the Missouri Department of Economic Development and Central Missouri Community Action broke ground Tuesday for the Stronghold Landing Project, an affordable housing construction project, at 5011 Old Lohman Road.
The project will add 40 total affordable apartments featuring two-bedroom and three-bedroom units. The complex will also have a community center and dog park. The plan costs around $13.7 million in total and is funded by a mix of state and federal funding, as well as Community Development Black Grant funds and low-income housing tax credits.
The project is part of the city’s larger “Race to 50” initiative, established by Mayor Ron Fitzwater in 2023 that set a goal to increase Jefferson City’s Population to 50,000 residents. Planning for the project was also directly tied to the 2019 tornado that destroyed around 152 housing units in the city, with 95% of those being rentals.
“Hitachi has grown substantially, Unilever is growing, Scholastic is growing, our small businesses are growing, but they have to have places for people to live,” Fitzwater said, “We knew that housing had to be a critical piece of that race if we were going to add 6,000 to 7,000 new residents to this community.”
Fitzwater added that the city has more than 600 units set to begin construction across the city during the next year, tackling both rental and for-sale properties of varying price points.
That total includes townhomes planned after the completion of the Wildwood Extension project, which is expected to wrap up this winter; 30 rental apartments across from Stronghold Landing, set for completion as early as January; and the controversial 230 single-family homes off Rock Ridge Road, set to break ground next year.
“There’s not enough housing for upper-income households and there’s not enough housing for lower-income households,” CMCA Executive Director Darin Preis said. “The low-income households are paying for housing that they can’t really afford and the upper-income households, they’re buying up that middle housing too.”
The Stronghold Landing Project will focus on low-income households, with two-bedroom units ranging in price from $480-$750 and three-bedroom units ranging from $450-$850. The exact cost of rent would be decided on a sliding scale based on the applicant’s income level. Applicants’ criminal histories will also be reviewed, similar to a traditional rental process.
“We all recognize that there’s a housing shortage here,” Jefferson City Ward 3 Councilwoman Treaka Young said. “[Residents’] concerns that they have is due to traffic, we’re conscious of that as council people, we’re understanding that we need to do a traffic study to make sure that it does not do more harm.”
Jefferson City Ward 4 Councilwoman Julie Allen was especially excited for the Stronghold Projects to be based in her ward.
“We have individuals coming in from the actual hospitals and executives, and they can’t find housing here,” Allen said. “We also have individuals in our industry and they say there’s nowhere to live here, from all levels, we need workforce housing.”
ABC 17 News spoke with seven residents living near Stronghold Landing. The majority of residents felt construction wasn’t an issue, one had no preference and one person voiced concerns that the apartment’s addition would bring down property values, adding that her family is planning to move once construction is completed.
Construction for Stronghold Landing is expected to be finished July 2026.