A groundbreaking ceremony Thursday celebrated new single-family homes coming to the city of Oregon’s town center.
Plans call for the construction of 36 single-family, two-story homes on Town Center Boulevard, just north of PIckle Road.
“This is something we’ve been waiting for for a long time,” said Mayor Mike Seferian. “We’ve been looking for this day for several years to actually get this project rolling. The object word for us was patience.”
City Administrator Joel Mazur agreed.
“We’re just grateful this is coming to fruition now. Glad to see it being carried through,” Mr. Mazur said.
Geyde Development and K. Hovnanian Homes Aspire are partnering with the city to develop the homes.
“The first time I saw this place, I could see what was possible,” said Nick Eyde, a representative of Geyde Development. “I really believe this will be one of the premier areas for single-family home developments because of everything that is happening with the town center,” he said.
“We’ve been in this market for the last couple of years,” said Chuck Vannoy, region president for K. Hovnanian Homes Aspire in Ohio. “It takes time. We’re excited about this project. It’s among five in the area that we’re in the process of currently opening, and there’s more coming to the city of Oregon. There were hurdles that we had to overcome in the last few months in order to get us here today. We’re ready to go. We’ll start construction on Friday.”
The size of the mostly vinyl sided houses will range from 1,700 to 2,500 square feet and will cost between $350,000 and $450,000, according to Andrew Kurek of K. Hovnanian Homes Aspire.
The floor plans offer various designs of the two-story homes. Some will feature up to six bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a loft, extra first-floor suites, two-car garages, and a five-foot crawl space, he said.
Why was the site on Town Center Boulevard picked for the housing development?
“Right now, land is hard to find,” said Mr. Kurek. “So partnering up with Oregon, which is motivated to get this going, together with our motivation to build houses, allowed us to make this happen.”
Councilmen Paul Drake, Beth Ackerman, Terry Reeves, and Steve Salander were in attendance.
“Anything that is worthwhile is worth the wait,” said Mr. Reeves. “In the next couple of years, we’re going to see everything booming here. The town center is going to be busy with a lot of people, and there will be a lot of activities for our Oregon citizens.”
“Everyplace I go, I know the citizens have been waiting and waiting,” said Mr. Drake. “On behalf of all the citizens in Oregon, I’m happy for them.”
“This is going to be a launchpad for more exciting stuff,” said Mr. Salander. “This may be one small step for man, but one large leap for Oregon citizens.”
The town center calls for mixed use residential and commercial development in an area that spans from Navarre Avenue to Pickle Road near I-280, and next to Mercy Health St. Charles Hospital.
The concept and vision of developing a town center was to create a downtown atmosphere in the city, which never had a historic downtown.
The concept is divided into three segments: light residential, where the groundbreaking for the new single-family houses was located; a more dense residential portion, which includes apartment complexes on the other side of Town Center Boulevard, closer to I-280 and St. Charles; then commercial development to the north, closest to Navarre Avenue, which includes the former Kmart site. The city’s expectation is that commercial uses will be focused closer to Navarre Avenue, and the residential uses will be near Pickle Road.
Mr. Seferian said after the groundbreaking that part of the delay of the development of single-family homes was because of the pandemic.
“We’ve been very patient because we want a quality development, we didn’t want to just throw something together,” he said.
Another groundbreaking is expected later this year on apartment complexes across Town Center Boulevard, just west of the 36 single-family homes, said Mr. Mazur.
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