Developer works with community to create a $6.8M housing project, generate two jobs
May 14, 2012
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Scott Gillespie had already decided that the Genesee Neighborhood was a good place to invest in a new housing development, but he didn’t think his opinion was the only one that mattered. While developing the plans for what is now a $6.8 million housing project, Gillespie reached out to the existing neighborhood residents to find out how they might envision their community to grow.
“I’ve engaged the neighborhood association, I’ve had three community forums,” Gillespie says. “We’ve sat down and I’ve presented the project to them and taken in their feedback, questions and concerns. I’ve made a number of adjustments to the development plans to accommodate their concerns, and because of that, we have a better plan.”
The development will include three, three-story buildings that will include approximately 90 new apartments. Gillespie is working through the approval process now and hopes to begin construction by this fall.
“I think it’s a great location for a variety of reasons,” Gillespie says. “It’s a very short walking distance of downtown, and it has enough space for large, continuous area of park land. We’ll have over two acres of open park land within the development.”
According to Gillespie, this will be a positive thing for the entire neighborhood. His plans include moving the density of the apartments to the southern portion of the site to the northern boarder of the neighborhood as undisturbed as possible, including preserving most of the site’s existing trees. Gillespie estimates the development will create two permanent property management jobs.