New construction goes up on Rose Street in Kalamazoo

Two new homes have gone up in the Northside neighborhood in Kalamazoo and it looks like they will be going fast.

The houses at 1021 Rose and 1025 Rose were built through a partnership between the City of Kalamazoo and the Kalamazoo County Land Bank using Neighborhood Stabilization Funds.

Both homes are selling for $102,000 and Kelly Clarke, executive director of the Kalamazoo County Land Bank, says there will be an open house for the two properties on Jan. 22.

If experience is any measure, they are not expected to be on the market for long. Four other homes built through the program have been sold and three sales are pending, Clarke says. Buyers are working hard to get together the paperwork necessary to purchase the homes.

The two homes on Rose Street were built after one condemned house was demolished creating three vacant parcels of land. Those were divided into two to create lots big enough for the houses that are each 1,646 square feet and feature four bedrooms and three baths, among other amenities.

Now, there are 15 other newly built or rehabilitated homes being sold in various neighborhoods across the city as part of the Kalamazoo Home Ownership Program.

Work will continue on other similar projects through February 2013. A 50-year-old building that's been vacant for 20 years and that once was a tuberculosis sanitarium has been demolished, making way for senior living apartments for low income residents.

There was has been the demolition of the former Kalamazoo Creamery at Lake and Portage streets. Landscaping of the property should take place this spring and officials will make it available for a mixed-use development as the economy improves.

Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave
Source: Kelly Clarke, Kalamazoo County Land Bank