(Jackson)- With new businesses, housing, and funding soon to be coming to Jackson or already here, it's good to sit down with Jackson Economic Development's Dave Schmidt to talk about the projects that could change the landscape of the city.

The DBS Group is building what will now be called Belmont Heights, with a few different phases bringing around 240 new housing units in townhomes and apartments to Jackson, and speaking of housing there will also be UCAP's spec homes for families. Schmidt had this to say on housing...

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“We've got right now people coming in and lets say you want to get a job at AGCO, you have no place to live. Finding a place is really difficult because there aren't a lot of houses for sale, there aren't a lot of especially market rate apartments that are available so you have to look at other communities. Now we're gonna give you an option that you can live here you can stay here. And so it's really exciting and I can't wait to see where this goes!”

Schmidt also talked about Jackson Business challenge which has brought many new businesses to the area, whether they've won or not, some businesses used the knowledge gained through the challenge process to open anyways, and have seen success in Jackson. There is also money left over through the Small Cities Grant for residential homes for that already existing housing to get a repair boost...

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“90 percent forgivable grant ten percent match, there are funds available through the city that if you don't have that ten percent match we do have some low interest loans that we can offer for that. It's forgivable over ten years, up to $25,000, so if you have a roof project, you need to replace a furnace, you need windows you need doors, basically any structural improvement to your house this will cover it, and again 90 percent of it is forgiven. So if you live in your house for ten years you get $25,000 worth of repairs it's gonna cost you $2,500.”

More information is to come as well about next year's business challenge, which will see details unveiled in three weeks.