Michaels Development Company Develops Affordable Housing Community in Dayton’s Historic Germantown-Broadway Neighborhood

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

Dayton, Ohio—The Michaels Development Company has developed Germantown Village, a new mixed-income, affordable housing community that is the first phase of a multi-phase revitalization initiative underway in the historic Germantown-Broadway area of Dayton.

“Michaels believes in community building with long-term commitments to housing needs but also supportive services and larger community revitalization,” Scott Puffer, Michaels Development Company’s vice president of development, tells MHN. “Germantown Village is the first phase of a multi-phased revitalization effort to reduce blight and help revitalize the Germantown Corridor.”

This first phase of Germantown Village consists of five buildings and 60 units. The buildings vary in height, two-story and three-story, and apartments range from one to three bedrooms.

Apartments include a variety of features including Energy Star appliances, HVAC and ceiling fans. Ten percent of the units are ADA-accessible. The community’s amenities include a playground, a garden, walkways and a community room.

More than half of the apartments offer rents affordable to households earning at or below 50 percent of the area’s median income.

“There is a significant need in Dayton for affordable housing,” Puffer says. “This particular area was blighted and included demolished, foreclosed, abandoned and dilapidated residential properties. Affordable housing helps to provide a catalyst for removal of blight and a kick start to improving this neighborhood.”

Germantown Village is located near the Wright-Dunbar Village and the new Greater Dayton Recreation Center, as well as Sinclair Community College.

According to Puffer, as other phases are completed, the four-acre community will complement the historic character of nearby areas and be a prominent feature of the neighborhood’s streetscape, offering quality affordable housing for families of all incomes as well as community recreation space.

The $12.8 million development is financed by a variety of sources, including equity raised by the sale of low income housing tax credits allocated by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. The major investor in those credits is UnitedHealthcare, which invested $8.9 million through a partnership with U.S. Bank. Additional funding came from federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds (NSP2), and federal HOME funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Interstate Realty Management Company will manage the community.