The announcement took place on an empty lot at the corner of Clay Street and East Second Street, east of the Blue Bridge. Across the street is where Tony Yager's great-grandfather started the family business in 1914. On October 29, 2026, Yager and Aaron Kizer, operating as Owensboro Downtown Properties, announced a $50 million plan for 205 homes downtown. The city called it the largest residential investment in downtown Owensboro's history.
Most of the coverage focused on the city's per-unit incentive. For anyone deciding whether to wait for a downtown home or buy elsewhere in Daviess County now, the more important public contribution is a parcel on Veterans Boulevard. The way the cash incentive is paid also points to a slow, multiyear rollout.
Two kinds of help, paid at different times
The plan has two parts. The first is a set of row homes on several blocks of East Second Street near Clay Street. Most reports put that part at 165 homes, and the Owensboro Times put it at about 160. The second is 40 riverfront units on Veterans Boulevard between Allen and St. Ann streets, overlooking Smothers Park. The city is supporting the project in two ways, and they work very differently.
| City support | What it is | When the developer receives it | Size on record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per-unit incentive | A cash payment for each home | After that home is completed | City's standard has been about $6,100 per unit |
| Veterans Boulevard site | City-owned land at the former American Legion site | Up front, before anything is built | $1.905 million on the 2027 working tax roll |
City Manager Nate Pagan didn't say how much the incentive for this project will be. He told the Messenger-Inquirer that the city is paying an incentive for each unit the developers complete and that the item would be on the City Commission agenda within about two weeks. City officials told the Owensboro Times the project is expected to receive the city's standard incentive.
That standard is already on record. In March 2026, commissioners approved Municipal Order 7-2026 for the Cardinal Reserve, the former U.S. Bank building at 700 Frederica Street, which is planned for 16 residential units. Pagan told the Owensboro Times it was "the same incentive" used for each unit at the Brio project on Second and Third streets, "which is approximately $6,100 per unit."
The riverfront lot is the larger contribution
The Daviess County Property Valuation Administrator lists the Veterans Boulevard property at $1.905 million on its 2027 working tax roll. Pagan told the Messenger-Inquirer the city gave that site to the developers for free as an incentive.
Spread across the 40 riverfront units, the site's assessed value works out to about $47,600 per unit. That is nearly eight times the standard per-unit payment. If the standard incentive applied to all 205 homes, it would total about $1.25 million, which is still less than the assessed value of the one riverfront parcel.
The East Second Street land cost much less. The two parcels there, the former Mischel Monument Co. and former Owensboro Auto Glass properties, were bought from Terry Woodward for a combined $725,000. The developers combined those parcels with land the Yager family already owned, and Yager said assembling it all took about a year and a half.
This affects anyone pricing a future downtown home. Yager said the city's help addresses high downtown land costs and makes the homes competitive with other parts of Owensboro. The most expensive downtown land in the project is the riverfront site, and that is the parcel the city gave away. So most of the public support is tied to the 40 homes overlooking Smothers Park, not spread evenly across all 205.
Paid on completion, built as demand allows
Paying the incentive only after a home is finished puts the construction risk on the developer. The city pays nothing for a home until it exists. That fits the schedule the developers described.
Kizer told the Messenger-Inquirer the work is projected to happen "over a seven-year span." Yager said "the design begins immediately, and we'll be building as the market grows." Kizer said a spring groundbreaking is the goal, with architectural work and surveying still underway. He also said the renderings shown at the announcement are preliminary layouts, not final designs.
For a buyer, that means 205 homes won't arrive at once. They'll come in phases, each sized to what the market can absorb, and the developers described this as the first phase of a larger plan. Spread across seven years, the total averages about 29 homes a year. Some years may see more and some fewer, depending on how earlier phases sell and lease.
Brio, the city's last large downtown residential deal, followed a different model. In 2019, the city proposed a $4.6 million incentive for that riverfront development, funded with surplus money from a parking garage project. The city was to be repaid through tax increment financing revenue that would otherwise go to the developer. Brio's plan grew to 117 apartment homes alongside a 144-room Home2 Suites hotel. At the time, Mayor Tom Watson estimated that a downtown parking space cost about $16,500.
The new plan's design reflects that cost. According to 14 News, Watson said parking for the row homes will be on the back side of the homes. Parking behind row homes avoids a structured garage, which was the costliest line item in the Brio deal.
What "competitive" has to beat
Yager's goal of making these homes competitive with other parts of Owensboro gives buyers a figure to compare against. In September 2026, the median sale price in Daviess County was $275,000, according to the Greater Owensboro REALTORS® Association, on $31.0 million in total dollar volume for the month.
Neither the developers nor the city has set prices yet. Kizer told the Messenger-Inquirer, "Our goal is to keep them low as possible, but still give the quality you would expect from any other building." He added that the developers want the homes to be "achievable for people who live in Owensboro."
The two forms of support should affect prices differently. A payment of about $6,100 per home after completion barely registers against a county median of $275,000. Free riverfront land valued at nearly $48,000 per unit is enough to change what a home overlooking Smothers Park costs to build. A buyer comparing a future downtown home with a resale in another part of town should expect the land subsidy to show up in the riverfront units more than in the row homes.
For a sense of where newer homes elsewhere in Owensboro have been gaining value, our earlier look at why prices are moving fastest outside new construction covers the other side of that comparison.
What a buyer can plan around now
These details come from the developers and city officials:
- Ownership mix. The homes will be a mix of rentals and homes for sale.
- Ground floors. Corner shops and restaurants are planned along East Second Street, with apartments above them, so business owners could live upstairs. The developers prefer locally owned businesses.
- Builder. Kizer Construction will oversee construction, and the developers said they would work to hire local firms.
- Art. Kizer wants each home to include an original painting or other piece commissioned from a local artist, along with murals and sculptures throughout the neighborhood.
- Model. Yager compared the goal to NuLu in Louisville and 12 South in Nashville.
Claud Bacon, president and CEO of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp., described the project to the Messenger-Inquirer as giving downtown employees "a place to live steps from where they work, eat and enjoy life." For what is within walking distance today, our guide to downtown Owensboro's food and riverfront covers the current options.
A few questions we hear often
When could the first homes be finished? The developers' target is a spring groundbreaking, and Kizer described the full build as a seven-year span. Since the city pays its incentive per completed home and Yager said building will follow the market, homes are likely to be finished in phases.
Is the city paying the developers $50 million? No. The $50 million is the developers' planned private investment. The city's contributions are the per-unit incentive and the Veterans Boulevard site.
Will the homes be for sale or for rent? Both, according to Watson and the developers, with prices still to be set.
If you're weighing a downtown Owensboro home that's still years from being built against a home you could buy today, HRE Advisors can compare them with MAI-level valuation work, including how land cost and timing affect each option. Request a Market Valuation & Strategy and we'll run the numbers with you.
