HomeStretch Project To Move Forward in Suttons Bay

Article written by Craig Manning and appeared in Leelanau Ticker on December 19, 2022.

A long-gestating workforce housing project in Suttons Bay will finally break ground this week, after a long saga of funding challenges and other hurdles. It’s a piece of good news for local affordable housing advocates.

News broke all the way back in May of 2021 that HomeStretch Nonprofit Housing Corporation, a regional developer of affordable housing, was in the process of acquiring a 2.6-acre parcel of land from the Leelanau County Lank Bank Authority to develop eight below-market-rate townhouse-style apartments. The parcel is located at 525 N. Marek Road, about a mile northwest of downtown Suttons Bay.

When HomeStretch first announced the development – dubbed the “Vineyard View Apartments” – the organization noted that the project carried an estimated $1.64 million price tag that would need to be paid for through grants and donations. But the price went up when HomeStretch learned from the Leelanau County Road Commission it would need to pay for various road improvements to create an up-to-code entrance to the new development.

Speaking to the Leelanau Ticker in July, HomeStretch Director Jon Stimson explained the situation thusly: “Our site doesn’t have its own paved access off of Marek Road, which is currently gravel. And the Leelanau County Road Commission is mandating that we bring Marek Road up to county specifications because we're adding density to the parcel on which our development is located. We were prepared to pave a long driveway and parking lot on our property. But in conjunction with that, [the Road Commission] is asking us to upgrade the transition from M-204 onto Marek Road, and then improve and pave 500 feet of Marek Road.”

Stimson said in July that the road improvements were “not in the budget initially," a problem for HomeStretch, given that the organization had mostly exhausted its funding options at the time. While HomeStretch had obtained sizable grants for the project – including $800,000 from federal and state entities like the Federal Home Loan Bank and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), as well as $612,000 in local grants and additional monies from several other sources – the road improvement needs meant Vineyard View was still about $150,000 shy of its budget as of July.

Five months later, Stimson confirms that HomeStretch has been able to close the funding gap and is planning to put the wheels in motion for Vineyard View right away.

“The cost for [the road upgrades] came to $93,000, based on a bid from Team Elmer’s,” Stimson explains. “And that $93,000 was a big part of the $150,000 we still needed in the summer. So, I went to Suttons Bay Township and presented to them the cost of the improvements, and they said that they would be willing to contribute $15,000 out of their account toward the cost, and that they would make a recommendation to the Road Commission for a matching amount; the Road Commission approved that matching amount. And then, in my presentation last month to the Leelanau County Land Bank Authority, they also understood that I had a gap and said they would contribute matching funds of whatever the township would provide. So, all told, I was able to raise 45,000 between those three sources.”

With nearly a third of the gap closed, Stimson “made a request to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) for $73,000 to help fill the final gap.” He says the MEDC has agreed to that request and that HomeStretch is “just waiting on a formal agreement” for the money. In addition, Stimson says a few local donors have recently come forward to support the project – including, just last week, a $10,000 donation that moved the effort to “fully funded” status. “So, we have enough money to do the road improvements and justify moving forward with the project,” Stimson concludes.

HomeStretch will hold an open-to-the-public groundbreaking ceremony this Thursday, December 22, at noon at the 525 N. Marek Road site. From there, Stimson says construction will start as soon as possible, with considerable buildout happening throughout the winter. “We’ve hired a construction management team that believes they can deliver this project for occupancy in one year,” he notes.

HomeStretch will begin accepting applications for the apartments in August.

The eight new townhomes of Vineyard View are 2-bedroom, 1.5-bath units reserved for residents earning 30-80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI). The project will be the 19th development that HomeStretch has built in the Grand Traverse region and will bring the organization's total impact on local housing stock to 126 affordable units. An additional 78 units are currently in the pipeline.

Stimson is optimistic that HomeStretch – which was established in 1996 – will be able to pick up the pace on its projects going forward. As an example, he teases a big announcement that the organization will make in the coming week, regarding a sizable piece of funding from the state for a new northern Michigan housing project. He’s also hopeful that HomeStretch will receive some of Grand Traverse County’s ARPA dollars to build 10 units on Carver Street in Traverse City.