In Princeton, a hole in the ground is the first step toward new housing. City and Caldwell County leaders broke ground Monday, Oct. 12, on a 2.5-million-gallon retention basin between South McNary Street and South Derby Street, off West Washington Street, according to WPKY.
The basin is meant to fix long-running flooding in that part of town. It's also what makes the next round of housing possible.
"In and of itself it sounds like just basic infrastructure, but it actually is supporting the construction of over 100 affordable housing units planned along this section of West Washington Street in downtown Princeton," Caldwell County Judge-Executive Kota Young told WPSD Local 6. Young also chairs the Princeton-Caldwell County Industrial Development Authority.
Young said the basin should be done by the end of the year.
What's coming after it
The first project in line is Madison Mills, a 60-unit affordable apartment development that's already been approved, with construction expected to begin early next year. Young said it will be the first multifamily complex built in Princeton and Caldwell County since 2004.
"We're standing on what will be a $13.7 million housing development, and that's just step one of at least three steps planned to try to take care of affordable housing need here in Princeton and Caldwell County," he said.
When the project was announced in March, WPSD reported that Madison Mills will be a three-story building with 48 one-bedroom and 12 two-bedroom apartments, mainly for seniors, with rents of about $550 to $800 a month. It's going on a roughly 3-acre site where a hosiery mill once stood, a nod to the days when Princeton was known for its sock factories. The developer is Wabuck Development Company of Leitchfield, which is using Kentucky Housing Corporation low-income housing tax credits, and the project was expected to wrap up in late 2028. Wabuck is also one of the developers on the state's tornado-recovery apartments in Western Kentucky.
After Madison Mills, an application has been filed for a second project called Washington Mills, and a third, tentatively called Lincoln Mills, is being considered, WPKY reported. Young said the housing plans include the 60-unit complex, 12 plexes and single-family homes, and that leaders hope to see a new development at least every year for the foreseeable future.
No general contractor has been named publicly for the basin or for Madison Mills.
An industrial push, too
The basin groundbreaking came right after another one at the Princeton-Caldwell County Industrial Park, where crews are building a 116,000-square-foot build-ready pad. All told, the two projects add up to about $1 million in work, WPSD reported, and the pad was made possible by a state grant of nearly half a million dollars.
That comes on top of a recently finished spec building, an $8 million investment in the community, according to Young. The last time the community built a spec facility was 1998, and its last build-ready pad was in 2017, he said. "We have received more project leads and interest in the last five months since that building's been completed than we have in the previous 10 years," he said. "What we've come to realize is companies invest in communities that invest in themselves." He added, "The demand is there for companies to look at communities the size of Princeton."
Young said the authority's entire budget was $11,000 in 2019. This year it's $5.8 million, thanks to the city and county using state and federal grants. "That's truly what happens when you start making these investments in communities like Princeton and Caldwell County — they snowball," he said.
Why it matters for Contractors
Small towns don't often get a pipeline like this. Princeton has a stormwater basin to build this fall, a 60-unit apartment building starting in early 2027, a second and third housing project behind it, plexes and single-family homes, plus an industrial pad and a spec building already drawing interest. That's work for excavation, concrete and pipe crews now, and for framing, roofing, MEP and finish trades over the next couple of years.
For contractors in the Pennyrile region, the message is simple: get to know the developer, Wabuck, and the industrial authority. When a county goes from an $11,000 budget to $5.8 million in seven years, it's planning to keep building.