FRANKFORT -- Plans for a $5.1 million affordable housing project in Frankfort will get a boost with assistance from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.
Ground-breaking is scheduled this month for Gateway Village apartment complex -- 36 housing units on the site of a former window factory near M-22 and Day Ave.
The project will include eight one-bedroom apartments, 20 two-bedroom units and eight three-bedroom units, with rents ranging from $300 to $700 a month depending on apartment size and residents' income. Eight units will be designed for occupancy by special needs tenants.
"This is really targeting the labor force in this area," said developer Joe Hollander of Hollander Development Corp. in Portage. Local businessman Art Jeannot is a project partner, and developers are working with the Benzie Housing Council.
Hollander said he plans to build the project according to LEED certification standards and the state's Green Communities program. Developers will utilize MSHDA's tax-exempt bond program and receive a $75,000 grant from the Michigan Green Communities program, plus another $91,200 from MHSDA for construction of a geo-thermal HVAC system for one of the buildings.
And the project is eligible for about $400,000 in state brownfield development tax credits to remove lead and other contamination from the property, Hollander said.
Demolition will begin next week and construction should begin in early November, Hollander said. Initial occupancy should be available by next spring and the development should be completed by late summer. A wetland park will be created adjacent to the property and will use recycled timber and other materials from the site demolition.
"We're pretty excited about the wetland park, too," Hollander said.
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