Kading Properties adds to workforce housing in Osceola

OSCEOLA, IOWA -- Within the next few weeks, bulldozers will be moving earth on the north side of Truman Road. In about 24 months another 122 families will have the opportunity to call Osceola home. The Vesta Village project is about to break ground.

Kading Properties will add the new units to its existing 190 units. Kading first entered the Osceola market in 1998.

“The continued investment by Kading Properties has significantly bettered our community over the past 20-plus years,” said Executive Director of the Clarke County Development Corporation, Bill Trickey. “Every time I drive onto a Kading property, it is pleasant. The lawns are mowed. The buildings and roads maintained. Their townhomes reflect nicely on Osceola,” he added.

The Vesta Village development offers expanded housing options including a 3-bedroom/2-bathroom plan and a 2-bedroom/1-bathroom plan in addition to Kading’s traditional 3-bedroom/1-bathroom design. Every floor plan offers an attached garage, private front entrance, and washer/dryer hookups, and all homes will be single-story with zero elevation change access.

Helping a property developer build quality housing in cities outside of a metro that have more capital resources and existing resources is a challenge said Osceola City Manager Ty Wheeler. “It takes a lot of partnership between public and private investors to deliver all of the components that make a development work,” said Wheeler.

Years ago, the city worked with Kading Properties on a sewer extension—Kading boring the sewer line and the City partnering to help offset material costs. Today, that extension serves continued development, said Wheeler. “We bore (the sewer) under a railway and under the Casey’s by the interstate offramp. This opens development for the next 20 years,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler said that Clarke County grew by 9 percent in the last U.S. Census. It was all population growth in Osceola. “There is no doubt our community needed housing to support workforce needs. Kading is a key part of the public-private partnership we’ve developed,” he added.

Clarke County Development Corporation executive director Trickey said the 2020 Census data showing Osceola’s growth since 2010 makes Clarke County an outlier compared to many other rural counties in Iowa.

Trickey said lack of housing is an issue for Osceola and for other low population counties. He credits Kading for changing the housing equation.

Census data compiled by McClure (https://mcclurevision.com/) a civil engineering company based in Clive, Iowa, reports that data collected over the past 10 years show 231 more people have moved to Osceola and now work in the community. During this same period, an additional 500 people live elsewhere and commute into Osceola for work. This increase in job expansion and a continued inflow of commuters demonstrates the housing gap is not closed, but has showed progress, said Trickey.

OSCEOLA----INFLOW----OUTFLOW----LIVE/WORK

2010----2255----1281----958

2019----2744----1345----1189

Change---- +489---- +64---- +231

Data compiled by McClure

[Inflow - live elsewhere, commute into community for work; Outflow - live in community, commute to another community for work; Live/Work - worker both lives and is employed in community]

We are proud to be part of the growing community of Osceola,” said Carrie Woerdeman, Director of Development for Kading Properties. “For more than 20 years we’ve enjoyed great support from the city. We look forward to serving even more residents in our new development.”