Long-delayed Mt. Prospect senior housing project progressing

A Mount Prospect senior housing development that has been in the pipeline for more than a decade could finally be getting off the ground.

Mount Prospect Community Development Director William Cooney said the Alden Foundation has received approval for funding for the Mount Prospect Horizon development and should have permit drawings by the end of year.

Cooney said the group plans to break ground in the spring.

Alden officials said they would have more details next week but confirmed that the project is moving forward.

It would be located at Wolf and Kensington roads, to the east of the Walgreens store, and consist of a three-story building with 92 independent living housing units, including 70 one-bedroom units and 22 two-bedroom units. There will be a community room, library and computer room.

The village board granted conditional use approval for an assisted living facility in March 1999. But the use expired in 2002 without a building permit being issued.

The matter came back to the board again in March 2011 and was given approval with the understanding that funding still needed to be found.

“There are a bunch of different pools of funding they have for this, one of which is state tax credits through IHDA (the Illinois Housing Development Authority),” Cooney said.

IHDA receives applications and then approves them based on a ranking system.

“This is their third effort at the tax credits,” Cooney said. “The first two times they were denied.”

In fact, he noted, another Mount Prospect development, Myers Place, a $13.2 million housing development for disabled, mentally ill or formerly homeless on the south end of the village, was one of the projects that beat out the Horizon.