By Associated Press - Saturday, April 28, 2018

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - County officials are deciding between two bids to turn Lincoln’s old county office building into either apartments or a center for mental health and addiction services.

Lancaster County Commissioners considered presentations last week from a local development company and a nonprofit interested in Trabert Hall, the Lincoln Journal Star reported . The building housed county offices for nearly 50 years.

Concorde Management & Development proposed transforming Trabert Hall into an apartment complex to lease to nearby workers, including nurses at the hospital or residents working in retail. The apartments wouldn’t be available for low-income housing, according to the developer’s plan.

The developer intends to rent units to residents with between 60 percent and 125 percent of the local median income.

Several commissioners expressed disappointment that the apartments wouldn’t address the local need for low-income housing for seniors and people with disabilities.

The developer is offering $925,000 for the building.

A local nonprofit, CenterPointe, proposed using the space for mental health services, a community transition program and other medical offerings.

The majority of the agencies clients live in the neighborhood, according to CEO Topher Hansen. About 75 percent of the nonprofit’s clients earn less than $5,000 a year and don’t have cars, he said.

CenterPointe plans to gut Trabert Hall, and build space for apartments to house the homeless, as well as an outpatient program. The building would provide integrated services, housing, physical medicine and behavioral health medicine, Hansen said.

The nonprofit is offering to pay the county $400,000 for the building initially, and another $100,000 later, said Tom Huston, a Lincoln development attorney.

The agency would also put together a $10 million funding package, including several tax credit programs and donations.

Commissioners will likely make a decision within the next several weeks.

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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com

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