Preparations for the project started earlier this year and DDC Management, the firm developing the property, is currently setting up utilities. Representatives of the company said they will start paving streets at the development next month.
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Lance Oakes, a manager for DDC Management, said so far everything is going according to plan. He said they expect construction to start in November for the development’s first model home. Once the model homes are complete, he said, they will start selling homes for the first phase of the project.
“The plan is to start selling by the end of this year. We will see frames going up around that time,”Oakes said.
The housing development will be built in four phases, with each phase expected to last a year. Building for each phase will start after homes are sold, Oakes said. Ryan Homes will be in charge of construction and as many as three model homes will be built in the fall.
However, Oakes added that there is no set time frame of when the project will be completed. He says it depends on factors such as sales as well as weather.
Oakes said they expect the development to be finished in the next four years. He said they also expect to sell 40 to 60 homes each year.
There has not been a significant housing development built in Springfield since the early 1990s, city officials said. By the end of the project, the housing development will have an estimated 231 homes.
“We know we have an aging housing stock. We have to be able to address that by one, offering new product, and also encouraging reinvestment and redevelopment in our existing neighborhoods,”said Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck.
Oakes said the housing development will have a mixture of ranch-style and two-story single family homes. Last year, Springfield and DDC developed a request for Tax Incremental Funding to make the project financially viable.
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The city eventually approved a proposal that would direct 75 percent of residential property taxes for new homes in the development to the project, with the other 25 percent going towards the Clark-Shawnee School District.
In regards to other taxing districts, such as the City of Springfield and Springfield Township, Heck said 100 percent of those taxes, in regards to residential property taxes for new homes in the development, would go towards the project for a period of 30 years.
“As we continue to attract new jobs and residents to the community, we need to provide new housing opportunities. As we look to grow we need a housing stock to support that growth,” Heck said.
The Springfield News-Sun has provided extensive coverage of housing issues facing Clark and Champaign County, including past coverage of the challenges of attracting new development in the area and attempts to bring new residents to downtown Springfield and Urbana.
By the numbers:
60: Amount of homes expected be built during the first phase.
231: Total number of homes that will be at the Bridgewater development.
53 acres: The size of the hosing development.
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