LEWISTON – Tax help from the city should make a senior citizen housing project happen on site of the former St. Dominic’s Regional High School building.

Councilors are scheduled to vote on giving Community Concepts about $473,000 in tax help over 20 years in the form of a tax increment financing district at their meeting tonight. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in City Hall.

The project could break ground next spring and be ready for occupants in the summer of 2007, according to Lincoln Jeffers, deputy director of community development for the city. The development will bring about 30 one- and two-bedroom apartments for senior citizens to the area, just north of Bates Street downtown.

The project is being paid for with state and federal money and $3.16 million from the New England Housing Investment Fund. Construction is expected to cost about $2.9 million.

“Community Concepts is still working out the financing, and having the city’s TIF on the books should help them significantly,” Jeffers said.

According to the deal, the development would generate about $43,760 in property taxes each year. The city would return most of that to Community Concepts – $30,196 per year for the first five years, $25,120 per year for the next five and $19,323 per year for the next 10.

All told, the city would return $473,408 in taxes over the life of the TIF.

In exchange, Community Concepts must keep rents affordable for the next 90 years. In 2005 dollars, that’s between $400 and $450 per month for a one-bedroom apartment.

It’s a fair trade, according to City Administrator Jim Bennett.

“We have not been getting any taxes on that property for years, so anything we get is an improvement,” Bennett said.

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