Several houses are now framed at the Three Meadows North Subdivision after a developer purchased the roughly 22-acre-property from the city.
Three Meadows North Subdivision is a land parcel at 280-286 W. Bacon St. The owner and developer, Allen Edwin Homes, plans to build 61 single-family homes with 80% of those listed at market value and the remaining 20% to be reserved for specific, qualified middle-class families, according to previous reporting from The Collegian. Allen Edwin Homes listed the starting price at $312,685, according to its listing website.
“There was no existing infrastructure before they started working out there,” Assistant City Manager Sam Fry said. “So they are installing all of the infrastructure. They have to actually put in the roads, they have to put in the water main, they have to put in sanitary sewer. And they have to work with our city utility on getting electric access to those sites.”
Allen Edwin Homes approached the city about building on the property, Fry told The Collegian.
“They are a large-home builder that has a significant presence here in the Midwest, and they had expressed interest in purchasing the property and building homes out there,” Fry said. “So that’s when the city began working with them.”
There are three move-in ready homes and three available floorplans, according to Allen Edwin’s listing website.
According to city documents, 58.1% of housing units in the city were built before 1970, while only 2% were built after 2010.
The $15 million capital investment is one of the largest new home building projects in Hillsdale in recent history, according to Fry. Michigan’s Brownfield Tax Increment Financing structure will allow the developer to recoup some of its upfront costs by receiving a share of future property tax revenue for the new homes.
The council discussed and approved this assistance at a public hearing on Nov. 4, 2024.
“We are creating a tax increment authority, and that means we’re going to raise taxes on those lots and pay the tax money directly to the corporation as a subsidy,” said Ward 4 Councilman Joshua Paladino, as previously reported by The Collegian. “Essentially, we will be giving a private organization the power to raise taxes.”
Paladino voted against the housing initiative in November 2024.
Sally Clark, director of the Economic Development Partnership, said she hopes this new development will ease the housing market.
“This gives us homes in a different price range and a different location for businesses to be able to say, ‘Hey, we do have new housing here,’” Clark said. “‘We have this available.’ So I think just any housing that we can have available is going to help that.”
The county is investing in a housing market study which began in March with results to come in August.
“To better understand these needs, the Hillsdale County Housing Study Committee was formed, and Hillsdale College actually invested in this as well,” Clark said. “So there’s a strong cross section of representatives from across the county that have really been involved in this housing study. It is a cross section of Hillsdale County, so that’s what’s great about this housing study.”
Correction, Apr. 2: This article has been updated to remove an incorrect statement that the city gave $15 million to the development.
