Last Thursday, a Kansas City developer bought a three-acre plot on Hackberry Street near Pacific Street. Cohen-Esrey Housing Partners LLC plans to start building 48 affordable two- and three-bedroom apartments on the site when it finishes designing them and awards a contract for construction.

Tracy Taylor, president of the subsidiary of the largest property management firm in Kansas City, said his company hopes to have the apartments completed in the spring if construction begins early enough and weather cooperates.

The Missouri Housing Development Commission has granted Cohen-Esrey $300,000 in federal and state tax credits and more than $1.5 million in subsidized loans to finance the two-story buildings.

Under the terms of the credits and subsidies, families may not make more 60 percent of Cape Girardeau County's median income or about $23,000 a year when they move in. Tenants can stay even if their income grows beyond that level later.

Cohen-Esrey bought the property from Ernie Beussink and Earl Norman. Tom Kelsey, the real estate broker with Lorimont Place Ltd., arranged the deal and said more land was available should Cohen-Esrey want to expand the development.

The land is part of a wheat field sitting across Hackberry from modest white frame single-family houses. It is zoned R-4.

This would be the first Missouri project for Cohen-Esrey Housing Partners, which specializes in developing and managing middle-income housing in small Midwest cities, Taylor said.

He said the company has developed similar apartment complexes in the Kansas towns of DeSoto, Manhattan, Fort Hays, Dodge City and Independence.

Documents from the housing commission say the two-bedroom apartments would rent for $385 a month; the three-bedroom units would go for $445. Those prices don't include utilities, Taylor said.

Every apartment will have two bathrooms, he said, with hookups for washers and dryers. There will be on-site managers at the complex 24 hours a day, and playgrounds.

"It's family-oriented," Taylor said.