Ground has been broken on Victory Gardens, a planned community of 74 owner-occupied homes in southeast Fort Wayne's Tillman-Hessen Cassel Corridor, at 2700 Elmdale Drive.
Mayor Sharon Tucker joined developer LegacyOne, Inc. for the groundbreaking on Tuesday. The development is intended to expand access to homeownership and encourage reinvestment in the surrounding neighborhood.
The roughly $24 million development will include single-family homes, duplexes, townhomes and zero-lot-line units priced between $186,000 and $325,000. Project leaders say the mix follows needs identified in the Southeast Fort Wayne Housing Market Needs Assessment and the Southeast Strategy Update.
Infrastructure support comes from a $1 million Legacy Fort Wayne grant, a $1.089 million READI grant through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and an approximately $1.2 million loan to be repaid through lot sales and tax increment financing approved by the Redevelopment Commission.
Partners include Habitat for Humanity, the Realtist Association of Northeast Indiana, Covenant Concepts and Legacy Community Development Corporation. LegacyOne and the Realtist Association will offer a six-month homeownership preparedness program covering credit readiness, mortgage options and homeowners insurance. The project is projected to create 322 local construction jobs and generate $5.24 million in state and local tax revenue.
