Jan. 19—As Effingham County’s housing shortage drags on, residential developers are requesting the annexation of local suburb into the Effingham/Effingham County Enterprise Zone, which offers incentives for the construction of new homes.

The Effingham/Effingham County Enterprise Zone Board Wednesday voted to annex Prairie Ace Estates, an approximately 50.3 acre subdivision located near the Effingham Country Club, into the Enterprise Zone.

However, the request must be approved by all municipalities participating in the Enterprise Zone and the state of Illinois before the subdivision can be annexed.

“We have been approached by the owners of Prairie Ace Estates,” Effingham Economic Development Specialist Sasha Althoff said during the Effingham/Effingham County Enterprise Zone Board’s meeting Wednesday.

Prairie Ace Estates Developer Scott Conant and RE/MAX Key Advantage Realtor Keith Hartman attended the meeting Wednesday and answered some questions regarding the subdivision and the annexation request.

According to Hartman, the subdivision is comprised of 59 lots, and houses have already been built on 18 of them.

“A lot of those 59 lots are sold, but a lot of those people are waiting for interest rates to come down,” Hartman said. “There’s 27 lots still for sale. All of the ones that are actually on the golf course have already been sold.”

If the request for annexation is approved by the state of Illinois, property owners in the subdivision would benefit from Enterprise Zone incentives which include a five-year property tax abatement on the increase to the base amount of a newly constructed single-family home located within the Enterprise Zone.

Additionally, newly constructed single-family homes within the boundary that cost $50,000 or more are eligible for a sales tax exemption for all permanently affixed building materials.

“I think this could spur construction as well,” Hartman said.

Althoff said the subdivision meets the requirements for annexation, one of which is ten single-family lots.

The price of lots in the subdivision range from $30,000 to $65,000, and Hartman said there are lots in the subdivision where duplexes could be constructed in addition to single-family homes.

“One thing that the owners try to do out here is try to have some mixed residential areas,” Hartman said.

Hartman also told board members that many of those who have purchased lots in the subdivision already live in Effingham which means new housing should become available once these residents construct and move into their new homes.

Althoff noted that the subdivision is located just outside of Effingham’s city limits and is not contiguous with the boundaries of the Enterprise Zone which means a section of the roadway connecting the subdivision with the Enterprise Zone would also have to be annexed.

“It will probably be a little bit more once we add the right of way or the connector strips that we’re going to have to add to get to it,” Althoff said regarding the acreage of the proposed area of annexation. “And this would not mean we are annexing it into the city. This would be in the county.”

Now that the Effingham/Effingham County Enterprise Zone Board has OKed the annexation, a public hearing regarding the matter must be held, and the request has to first be approved by the city of Effingham, Teutopolis and Effingham County before the application for the annexation of Prairie Ace Estates can be sent to the state for final review.

“For this application, we have to meet three out of 11 criteria that the state has set forth,” Althoff said.

Also during the meeting, Althoff provided board members with updates on the 16 projects that took place within the Enterprise Zone in 2023.

Three of these projects are residential, and the other 13 projects are commercial and include the expansion of a lumber yard by John Boos & Co., the construction of a new warehouse by Fritz Krampe Enterprises LLC, the construction of a new building on U.S. Route 40 by Sperry Sales and two residential projects in Golden Fields Subdivision.

“The new businesses that we got into the zone was the Fritz Krampe warehouse, RentX and Home2 Suites,” Althoff said.

In 2023, 139 new jobs were created within the Enterprise Zone, and a total of nearly $32 million was invested in the area, according to Althoff who concluded that it was a “pretty good year” for the Enterprise Zone.

Nick Taylor can be reached at nick.taylor@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 618-510-9226 or 217-347-7151 ext. 300132.