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Ottawa County loan fund shows $30M in construction loans, seeks outside capital and local investors
Summary
Staff told the Ottawa County Housing Commission the revolving loan fund has nearly $30 million in construction loans in the pipeline, is supporting hundreds of affordable units and is pursuing outside and local investors to expand the program.
Chris, a housing commission staff member, told the Ottawa County Housing Commission in July 2025 that the county's revolving loan fund now has a growing pipeline of projects beyond Holland and is starting to include for-sale housing as well as rental developments.
"You can kinda see, you know, in aggregate, nearly $30,000,000 of loans when you look at the construction loan amount," Chris said, and later described a combined "total development cost of nearly a $160,000,000. 554 units, of which 435, are affordable."
The presentation identified projects in Grand Haven, Ferrysburg and Nunica and named Dwelling Place as the developer on a recent Holland project. Chris said some projects in the pipeline are for-sale housing, including involvement from the Grand Haven Community Land Trust, and that certain deals will refinance construction loans into permanent financing so that capital can "recycle[] quickly." He also said some upcoming projects were still in early planning and that additional details would be available in future quarterly updates.
Commissioners and staff discussed the fund's flexibility: rather than rigidly defining allowable project types, the county set broad goals and left staff latitude to support a range of housing products, including "missing middle" and workforce housing, which staff said helped the program respond to market demand.
Staff said the fund has attracted interest from outside investors and foundations. Chris described conversations with potential investors from other states and said local intermediaries such as IFF (a nonprofit financial intermediary) are being used to package deals and take on institutional credit risk. "They're actually taking on a credit risk of us as an institution, not even just this portfolio," Chris said, describing IFF's role in providing a structure acceptable to national investors.
On local investment, commissioners suggested the fund could be packaged for county residents, including retirees seeking lower-risk investments tied to community benefit. Chris said the county had not yet solicited direct investments from residents but that community foundations were already involved; he expected to discuss options with the Grand Haven community foundation and other potential partners in coming weeks.
Commissioners asked staff to provide more detail in future reports about the income targets for for-sale projects and the American-Community-Income (AMI) mixes that projects will serve. Chris agreed to return with greater clarity in the next quarterly update, including whether some for-sale units would target lower AMI levels such as 60%.
Ending: Staff said they would follow up with additional project-level details in the next quarterly packet and pursue conversations with community foundations and potential investors about whether and how to expand outside and local capital into the revolving loan fund.
