Port Huron Township to mull over sale of 70 acres at Michigan, Moak for affordable housing
A massive new housing development could begin to take shape in a matter of months on 70 acres of vacant property in Port Huron Township under a proposal making its way before township officials.
Scott Beedon, a local realtor acting as a liaison for a Long Beach, New York-based “husband and wife team that are extremely passionate about affordable housing,” shared their rough plans with the township’s board on Monday calling for a two-phase project designed to address the region's housing shortage with dozens of prefabricated residential units on two township-owned parcels at the northeast corner of Michigan Road and Moak Street.
Beedon said the first phase could be underway in 12 to 15 months, if successful, with up to 72 units following a due diligence period to mitigate any wetlands and work with state and local building standards.
But first, he said the group — dubbed Belvidere Homes — needed the township board to sign off on the concept before finalizing a purchase agreement.
“This is a plot plan, which would be an absolute best-case scenario. We are so preliminary in this,” Beedon said.
In a presentation, he showed a prospective layout, breaking out an eastern 14 acres into the first phase and leaving the remaining 56 for the second, as well as housing types geared toward new three-bedroom, two-bathroom homes with small square footage and target buyer prices well below $200,000.
“We’ll talk about wetlands and county drains and easements (at a later point). But that’s the parcel, and that’s kind of how we have drawn it out,” Beedon said. “Today, it’s kind of a little bit broader scale of phase one and phase two that we see on the project.
“We have utilities on the east side that are relatively easy to get to and that’s what’s driving us to look at starting phase one on the east end of the property.”
Township board members ultimately signed off on the idea, though officials had already been presented with a draft purchase offer.
Supervisor Bob Lewandowski later said he expected a working purchase agreement to come back before the board next month. The preliminary sale price of the township property, he said, was $350,000.
Trustee Steve Riehl was among the officials who said he liked the idea for the tax base it could bring to the township, among other potential benefits.
“The average tax then that would be brought in … would be way more beneficial than we got now, which is nothing,” he said. “Maybe we can bring some new businesses. … Even if (residents) drive to Detroit (for work), they’re spending their money in the township.”
What could the development look like?
The two parcels involved are immediately south of the township’s Michigan Road Little League fields, and township officials said there were no potential conflicts in the future use of the property under their master plan.
Beedon said they were going with two particular types of housing, so far, for the first phase.
That included 60 units of 1,000-square-foot single-family homes at $160,000, or type one, and larger-scale homes at 1,800 square feet at $175,000, or type two.
Both were three-bedroom, two-bath, and one-story. The first included the kitchen, living room, and laundry room, and the second could be framed to put two homes on one large lot.
There were two other types of homes typical of the developers’ prefabricated models, including one two-floor, 2,800-square-foot layout at $195,000 and another multi-family type with two flats at 1,800 square feet and $150,000 each.
Beedon told Port Huron Township officials that typical arrangements didn’t necessarily mean identical exterior aesthetics for each unit.
Who are the developers?
The couple are Hassan Miah and Miranda Tan, who Beedon said are natives of Detroit and New York, respectively.
He added they had ongoing investments in Detroit and were looking to redevelop a parcel at 25th and Bancroft streets in the township.
Miah and Tan were not present Monday night, citing travel issues. According to their professional social network profiles, each also purports entrepreneurial, technology, and financial investor ties to companies they founded.
Beedon said they hoped the approval would help ease the project forward.
Belvidere LLC was established last year in Michigan to focus on affordable housing.
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Port Huron Township may sell 70 acres at Michigan, Moak for affordable housing
