Property Development
Michaels Development Company Chosen to Plan New Marble Street Housing
The Springfield Housing Authority and the City of Springfield have chosen a New Jersey-based company to plan a replacement for Marble Street Apartments, a key piece of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development $300,000 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant aimed at a massive transformation of the South End neighborhood.
The Michaels Development Company of Marlton, N.J., will spearhead the effort to design new housing, which will likely be a mix of public, affordable and market-rate housing, to replace the isolated and antiquated SHA complex at the end of Marble Street, now home to 46 families.
SHA Deputy Executive Director Michelle Booth, who is representing the authority as part of the city’s quest to receive the full grant, said Michaels has already begun working on the plan, and should be done by late spring.
Michaels will be paid $100,000, with funds coming from the HUD Choice planning grant, to design the housing component of the application for the larger Choice grant.
“We’re very excited to have Michaels on board – they’ve worked on housing plans all over the country, including in New Haven,” Booth said. “Ultimately, we’re looking to create a healthy neighborhood, a place where people want to live and work.”
The SHA and the city are working together to apply for status as a HUD Choice Neighborhood, which could bring upwards of $30 million in federal funding, tax credits and other funding to boost the entire South End. The neighborhood, ravaged by the June 1, 2011 tornado that swept across Western Massachusetts, would get a holistic boost including improvements to housing, education, commerce, and more.
Springfield was one of 13 cities asked last year to apply for a Choice grant this year, and the only one in New England.
SHA and the city expect to have the grant application in to HUD by late summer, Booth said.
