The first phase of Steel City Terrace housing redevelopment in Farrell can officially start.

The Mercer County Housing Authority spent all of Wednesday morning in Pittsburgh signing formal documents to complete settlement agreement plans for Steel City.

L. DeWitt Boosel, MCHA executive director, said he began signing the volume of formal documents at 9 a.m. Wednesday, a process that lasted throughout the morning. He said the now completed papers and Developer Agreement are in the process of being bound into one volume and redevelopment can now begin.

"We're pretty excited," Boosel said. "It's been more than a two-year time frame that we've spent planning, working and negotiating toward this event."

The close-out signing was only for the first phase of work. The remaining four phases will have to endure a similar process. The first phase of redevelopment consists of building 53 units -- 37 are public housing and the rest are low income apartments.

"From the Housing Authority's stand point this has been a long haul for us and a very complicated process to put together," Boosel said. "We were greatly assisted by resident input, participation and a great development team. It wasn't the work of any one person. It was a whole team's efforts."

He said the process is more than simply building apartments, but also community revitalization.

"It's more than just bricks and mortar," he said. "Farrell really aided us and there are so many people to thank that it's hard to cover all of the bases."

The authority and Falbo/Penn Rose plan to build a total of 74 public housing units, 45 apartments and 26 homes on Steel City property and the surrounding neighborhood.

The Hope IV Construction Loan and loans from National City Bank will help pay for construction.

Boosel said the first phase building has to be completed by December 2003 to satisfy requirements for the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, which issued tax credits for the project.