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City of Lafayette to build last house at Chatham Square

Mike Loizzo
/
WBAA Radio

The developers of Lafayette’s Chatham Square community say their construction work should be finished in September. However, Brinshore Development will come up one house short of plans.

Senior Vice President Peter Levavi says the goal was to build ten owner-occupied homes for low and moderate income families, but there’s only enough money to pay for eight. He says sales were slow last year under one realtor, because they were priced too high.

The miscalculation has caused a shortfall in the amount of subsidized funds still available.

“We didn’t know how the sales were going to go when we started the program, and we’ve now gotten into it and we see exactly what it needs to be. We now know a lot more than we did a year ago,” Levavi says. “We were close, but we were off by a little bit.”

He says Brinshore will build two more houses along Shenandoah Drive. The six already built have been sold, and there’s a waiting list for the 89 rental units that are part of the eight acre site.

The energy-efficient, solar home built by Purdue students is another home at Chatham Square. It remains for sale.

Levavi says one of the lots will go back to the city due to the funding situation.

“It’s great that the city’s going to be able to do it. We’re very much hoping that students through the building trades get a chance to build the house,” he says.

Brinshore is giving the city its blueprints for a ranch house to build on the site, along with the remaining subsidized funds it does not use.

Lafayette Economic Development Director Dennis Carson says his department will oversee the construction and ultimate sale of the final house.

“So, we’ll find a builder for that and then a buyer, eventually, as well,” he says. “The quality of the development is fantastic and the for-sale homes are selling well now, so we’re very happy.”

Mayor Tony Roswarski says they’ll contact the Tippecanoe County Building Trades Program to see if that’s a possible partnership.

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