Efforts to revitalize and repopulate American Addition received a major shot in the arm earlier this month when funding for a long-planned infrastructure upgrade was approved by the Columbus City Council.
Abigail Mack, home ownership directer for Homeport, says they are thrilled to see the project move forward. “The city’s been a really good partner,” she said, adding that Homeport’s plan to build more than 100 new houses in the neighborhood depends on the improvements being made.
The $6 million dollar infrastructure project, which was approved as part of the city’s capital improvement budget, will initially focus on an eight-block quadrant of the neighborhood. It will include reconstruction of the roadways and the addition of several basic amenities that the area has never had, such as sidewalks, streetlights, and a curb-and-gutter storm drainage system.
The project will also include green infrastructure like rain gardens and pervious concrete curbs, which will be a first for any neighborhood in Columbus.
Mack says that momentum is building in the small neighborhood located off of Joyce Avenue. The six new homes the organization built last year are occupied and the four currently under construction are already spoken for, with buyers ready to move in. Many families have been attracted by the prospect of a new house in a development that offers suburban-style amenities, yet is just three and half miles northeast of Downtown.
Depending on demand and the progress of infrastructure improvements, Homeport hopes to maintain a building schedule of around ten houses a year.
Utility work for the infrastructure project is already under way and should continue through the summer, with road improvements scheduled to start in September. The overall target for completion is December of 2014.
More information is available at www.homeportohio.org.
Sign photo by Walker Evans. Homes photo via Homeport.