First building of downtown Springfield townhomes project almost done

The first building of a townhome housing development in downtown Springfield is near completion and its first buyers are expected to move in by the end of July.

The building will contain six townhomes with each unit containing three-stories, an attached garage, two bedrooms and one and half baths. It is part of larger project, Center Street Townes, that is expected to bring a total of 34 townhomes in the area of Center and West Columbia streets.

So far, four of the townhomes have already been bought and the building that houses them is expected to be finished by the end of July, with tenants moving in shortly after, said Charlie Simms, the president of Charles Simms Development.

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The townhomes are about 1,300 square feet and costs about $200,000. However, future homeowners will also have a 15-year property tax exemption as the area is considered as one for community revitalization. That determination offers incentives for commercial and residential development, especially in urban cores.

The townhomes development is part of larger efforts to redevelop downtown Springfield as well as bring new housing stock to the city. Construction for the project started last year and the City of Springfield put up money for preliminary work to be done to the site. That included trucking away old bricks the foundations from past buildings.

Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck told the News-Sun in the spring of 2019 that “this specific project to do all of the site work is about $340,000.”

The total project to construct 34 townhomes in the area by Charles Simms Development is expected to bring about $8 million worth of realestate value to the area and it will consist of a total of six buildings, Simms said.

As of late last year, the firm had constructed around 118 townhomes in downtown Dayton over the last seven years at that time. Springfield’s development is expected to be similar with slight modifications.

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With the first building near completion, construction on the second building is expected to start in the near future, Simms said. For the first building, he said the final steps include putting down black top, landscaping, connecting utilities and completing the inside of the townhomes.

The first building will contain five units for sale and the sixth will be used as a model home and will be ready for showing in August. The second building will contain four townhomes and framing is slated to start after the weekend, with construction to wrap up by the end of the year.

The project itself is slated to wrap up by 2022.

However, the coronavirus pandemic has caused a slight delay in constructing the first building, though four of the townhomes were purchased before the start of the pandemic.

The global health crisis delayed the building process as the first structure associated with the project was originally slated to be completed by the end of May or early June.

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