Ground is set to be broken later this year on 12 rental houses in Ellsworth and two in Kanopolis as part of a tax credit package recently approved by the Kansas Housing Resource Corporation.

The energy-efficient single family houses are expected to cost about $130,000 to build. They will have three bedrooms, two baths and one-car garages. There will not be basements; however, plans include a storm shelter inside each of the 1,200-square-foot houses.

A combination of the state-sponsored tax credits and $4 and $5 million in private investment are included in the financing plan.

The proposal calls for the homes to be rentals during a 15-year tax credit compliance period, at which time the houses will become available for sale. Monthly rental charge is expected to be about $600 and income restrictions apply.

The Ellsworth houses will be built near the Good Samaritan Village, in the Canren Addition.

Developers and the general contractor were to be in Ellsworth County this week to hammer out a time line for construction.

Pete Ramsel, a representative of the developer, Pointe Royale, said the project will offer opportunities to local contractors and vendors during construction and management and maintenance employees once the houses are built.

Ramsel, who lives in Missouri, was here in December to talk about the program with officials across Ellsworth County. At that time, the plan was to build 12 houses in Ellsworth, six at Wilson, four each in Kanopolis and Holyrood and one at Lorraine.

“These small developments come with very tight construction budgets ... Kanopolis and Ellsworth work well logistically,” Deb Giffin, a representative of Pointe Royale, said in a news release.

“This being our first year in Ellsworth County, we need to get our feet wet — We will come back next year and apply for a Phase II in Ellsworth County.”

Stacie Schmidt of the Smoky Hill Development Corporation said the new homes will solve an immediate need for affordable rentals in the area. The demand was identified by a third-party market study prior to the submission of the tax credit application, she said.