An out-of-state development group is proposing to build a 90-unit low-income senior housing facility on 4.4 acres at 1111 E. Army Post Road. Architectural rendering by Berardi+Partners Inc.

An Indiana-based development group is proposing to construct a 90-unit affordable housing apartment project for senior citizens on vacant ground west of Southridge Mall.

The proposed $13.7 million project would be located on Des Moines’ south side on 4.4 acres that once were home to department store Montgomery Ward. The building was razed in the mid-2000s.

AHEPA National Housing Corp., located in Fishers, Ind., was created in the early 1980s. The group operates more than 90 affordable senior housing projects in 19 states, including four in Iowa (one in Johnston and three in Ankeny).

“They are well-seasoned and know what they are doing,” Chandler Poole, Des Moines economic development coordinator, told the city’s Urban Design Review Board this week.

All of the nonprofit development group’s projects focus on affordable housing for low-income elderly people. The group makes use of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 202 program that provides financial incentives for the development of housing for senior citizens with annual incomes of 30% or less of the area’s median income.

In Des Moines, an elderly person with an annual income $20,700 or less would be eligible to live in the proposed housing project.

The development is the latest proposed at the Southridge property, which is undergoing a transformation.

The mall at 1111 E. Army Post Road opened in October 1975 and by 1982 had four anchors, all department stores. For about 20 years, the mall kept most of its retail spaces filled. That changed after Jordan Creek Town Center opened in West Des Moines in 2004.

In recent years, the mall’s owner – the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Macerich Co. – has worked to repurpose space at the center. Des Moines Area Community College has a satellite campus at the mall. Space on the northwest corner of the mall site was developed into housing for senior citizens. A vacant retail building was converted into an outpatient clinic for veterans. Bank of America is building a new facility along East Army Post Road. A portion of the mall that had been home to Sears is being redeveloped into an athletic club and multisport facility.

The next addition to the mall property would be the proposed three-story, L-shaped apartment  building. The structure would be all one-bedroom apartment units, ranging in size from 700 square feet to 740 square feet, according to plans provided to the Urban Review Design Board. The building’s exterior would be composed of brick, stone and vinyl siding. Outside areas would include a patio, tenant gardens, a gazebo, a walking trail and pet stations.

Board members suggested that a sidewalk be added that connected the proposed apartment building with the mall and that easy access to a nearby bus stop be created. Poole told the board that city officials were working on creating a master plan of the Southridge site that shows the locations of parking, interior streets and pedestrian walkways.

City staff is working on a financial package for the project. Under consideration is the provision of up to $358,628 in project-generated tax increment finance dollars to the project, information provided to the board shows.

The board approved the proposed project’s preliminary designs.