Goshen officials broke ground Thursday on a 60-unit multifamily housing project that was two years in the making.
Goshen developer Greenwood Rental Properties first proposed an apartment complex at the corner of Indiana and Plymouth Avenue in 2020. Since then, the $12-million project has faced zoning hurdles, supply chain disruptions and soaring materials costs.
“We actually came out here a couple days ago and we were just walking around,” Greenwood co-owner Mayra Garcia said, standing at the project site. “We were like, ‘Wow, this is really happening. Like, we finally are doing this.’”
The project’s original proposal called for 90 units, but after the monthslong rezoning process, Garcia said construction costs were too high.
“It wasn’t something we could really afford anymore,” she said. “So we decided to do the 60 units, and then somebody from the city mentioned doing a possible TIF bond.”
For the first time, the city of Goshen used a tax increment financing — or TIF — district to help fund a housing development. Mayor Jeremy Stutsman said the project “couldn’t come at a better time.”
“As you all know, housing is very short in our area — across the country, but definitely in Elkhart County,” he said. “So this is a big deal for the city of Goshen, to bring more families here and be able to provide more places for people to live who are working here already.”
According to a proposal presented to the city redevelopment commission in January, Goshen is growing faster than other cities in the South Bend-Elkhart region and has a lower proportion of vacant housing.
The proposal says the complex will consist of five two-story buildings with a total of 10 three-bedroom, 40 two-bedroom and 10 one-bedroom apartments. Thirty garages will also be available for tenants to rent.
The units will retail at market rate — apartments range from $1,250 to $1,600 a month, according to the proposal. Though no space is reserved for lower-income tenants, Garcia said the complex still fills a gap in demand amid the nationwide housing shortage.
“People will come up to us and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, do you know of a house I can rent? An apartment? I really want to live here but I can’t find anything,’” she said. “It’s just exciting that next time somebody asks me, ‘Hey, do you know where we can live?’ I can be like, ‘Yeah, there’s an apartment complex coming up next year.’”
Garcia said the first of the complex’s five buildings is expected to be completed next March, with the remaining four buildings finished by next July. She said the company aims to begin leasing next spring.
Contact Gemma at gdicarlo@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at@gemma_dicarlo.
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