Housing development project could rebuild community, rebuild lives

Building homes, building a neighborhood and building the work skills of former state prison inmates are all part of a program now under way in one of Kalamazoo’s largest neighborhoods.

Over the next two to three years the Edison neighborhood will grow by 24 homes in a program that brings together people who need work and local builders.

The development, on seven acres in downtown Kalamazoo west of Portage Street across the street from Bank Street Market, is called Marketplace. When completed it will be Kalamazoo’s largest residential development in years.

Officials say their goal is that the Marketplace development stabilize the area’s residential property values and promote pride among neighbors on surrounding blocks. The project might also jumpstart redevelopment of the nearby Portage Street commercial corridor.

The homes are being built with $4 million of a $15 million federal stimulus award to the city and the Kalamazoo County Land Bank. An additional $1 million is expected to be generated when the first 18 homes are sold and some of the federal resources funding construction are repaid. The mortgage proceeds will be used to fund the remaining homes, expected to go up over the next three years.

Work is beginning immediately on four of the houses, so they will go up in time to be included in the Kalamazoo Parade of Homes in June.

The houses are three-bedroom, 2.5-bath, single-family homes, featuring oversized two-car attached garages, front porches, rear decks. The two-story Craftsman-style construction on 70-foot by 100 foot deep lots, will have no basement. They will be built to five-star energy efficiency standards.

To make the homes affordable, stimulus money will subsidize sales prices. The homes are expected to be built for about $200,000 per home, but sell for about half that. Families earning up to 120 percent of area median income — up to $73,200 — could be eligible to buy the homes.

Some of the area’s top, custom home builders have agreed to construct the first homes. Builders must agree to participate in Project HOPE, the local construction trades job training initiative for selected former offenders.

Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Mary Balkema, Kalamazoo County