MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. — Plans to build dozens of new houses per year in the City of Muskegon Heights began to pick up steam Monday with help from an independent developer. A series of homes will be built with the goal of transitioning the city’s renters into homeowners.
The homes will represent some of the first new builds Muskegon Heights has seen in around 17 years. Developers unveiled designs for the first home, located on Ray Street, during Monday’s city council meeting.
The effort is an arm of the Reaching New Heights Campaign, which the city launched earlier this year. One of the campaign’s primary goals calls for the building of 50 new houses each year to fill up the more than one thousand vacant or abandoned properties within city limits. .
This project, New Promise, was spearheaded by independent developer Phyllis Loudermill, who partnered with other local investors, bankers and real estate firms to make it happen.
“I brought a lot of different people together, who were willing to invest in our city and a lot of them are people that have lived here,” Loudermill, who owns Michigan-based HERCOmpany, said of the investment group.
“We've taken this opportunity to rebuild this community ourselves. People caught the dream.”
The initial plan called for ten or more houses to be built, all offering down payment assistance and other resources in keeping with the goal of promoting homeownership.
The first property on Ray Street already had a buyer at the time of this publication, according to Loudermill.
In addition to the potential to change lives, city leaders said they view the project as an opportunity to breathe new life into the city’s ailing tax base.
“Muskegon Heights was built to exist on 5,000 homes and right now, we only have 3,700 homes. So we need to build new houses,” said City Manager Troy Bell.
“That is going to pull us into the renaissance that we know that this community deserves.”
Work was slated to begin on Ray Street in approximately one week, according to the developer. The project will begin with cleanup before construction gets underway in earnest.
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