Close to Home III Breaks Ground in Ironton

An official ground breaking ceremony for Close to Home III, a new assisted living facility, will take place at the former St. Lawrence O’ Toole Community Center at 3 p.m. on Friday in Ironton. Upon completion, Close to Home III will create 30 new jobs and will be the only assisted living facility located in Lawrence County.

“Finding a new use for this important historic building is a point of pride for the Ironton community,” said Charlie Kunkel, co-owner of St. Lawrence O’Toole Gardens, LLC. “Lawrence County has needed an assisted living facility for quite some time. We look forward to bringing this new resource to the region.”

The Close to Home III project will rehabilitate the now vacant St. Lawrence O’ Toole Community Center, originally built in 1910 as the St. Lawrence School. Its owners, St. Lawrence O’Toole Gardens, will build an 8,316-square-foot addition and making structural and sidewalk improvements. Of the 30 positions created by the project, 16 will be filled by individuals of low or moderate income.

Finance Fund partnered with the developers at St. Lawrence O’Toole Gardens, LLC by providing $2.7 million in New Markets Tax Credits funding. Also funding this project were the Ohio Department of Development, with a $500,000 grant from the Community Development Block Grant Economic Development Program, and a loan from the Huntington, West Virginia-Ironton, Ohio Empowerment Zone, Inc.

“When our program team met Sharon Hartwig and Charlie Kunkel, we were inspired by their dream of reclaiming this vacant, historic building for their community,” said James R. Klein, chief executive officer of Finance Fund. “We believe that Close To Home III will enhance the economic vitality of the region for many years to come.”

Editor’s Note: The ground breaking will be held at 3 p.m., Friday, at 617 Center Street, Ironton. Media interested in attending should contact Stacy Wood at woods@marketing-works.net or call 614.540.5520.

About Finance Fund

Finance Fund (www.financefund.org) is a statewide nonprofit financial intermediary whose clients include community-based nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses serving low-income communities throughout Ohio. Finance Fund engages in creative approaches that build bridges between capital markets and economically distressed communities.

Since 1987, Finance Fund has invested more than $96 million in housing, economic development, childcare and Head Start projects throughout Ohio, leveraging more than $759.9 million. This investment was accomplished through 2,457 awards to community-based organizations throughout the state as part of Finance Fund’s core programs. Partnerships have enabled low-income people access to 15,312 units of affordable housing, 8,991 full-time jobs, and 3,033 early care and education spaces (classrooms) for 69,377 children benefiting the lives of more than 116,000 Ohioans.

For more information, please visit the Finance Fund blog at http://www.financefund.org/blog/ or call (614) 221-1114.