Highlands Residential Services is requesting financial extensions for the RedBud Village Project, a 20-unit development designed to assist those who are homeless.
Highlands Residential Services Executive Director Chris Cassetty said HRS has two grants from the Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) totaling an estimated $4 million that are set to expire this year. Cassetty said the final piece to the financial puzzle was an estimated $1.1 million Federal Home Loan Bank Grant. Cassetty said HRS unexpectedly missed out on the grant by less than half a point.
“It really was,” Cassetty said. “We thought we had a really good chance, and we were a little bit surprised, but that’s how grant applications go sometimes.”
Cassetty said HRS will look to explore other possible funding options. He added that HRS will meet with THDA at the end of the month to request an extension on the two existing grants.
“It’s a pretty normal process,” Cassetty said. “A lot of grants that they give out, the grantees need extensions for various reasons. So, we are not asking for anything unusual, but we’ll know for sure again, probably towards the end of the month, and assuming we get those extensions, then certainly the project will still be on track.”
HRS previously received an estimated $250,000 from the City of Cookeville and contributed an estimated $190,000 of its own funding toward the project.
Construction on RedBud Village began months ago, and Cassetty said Highlands Residential Services still plans to complete the project. But without approved extensions, he said the development could face major setbacks.
“We would have to give those grants back to THDA, and in that event, the project would certainly not be scrapped but certainly be put on a definite hold,” Cassetty said. “But again, I don’t think that will be the case at all.”
Cassetty said that with the funding hurdle, construction on the development has stopped. The development is being built on Eagle Landing Road just off Buffalo Valley Road.