The Watershed

Rural investment supporting attainable housing and social-enterprise.

Investment

  • NMTC Amount: $10
  • Total Project Cost: $11

IMPACT

  • 30 FTE jobs
  • 15 construction jobs

Project Description

The Watershed is a five-story, mixed-use, mixed-income development in downtown Sturgis, Michigan, led by Root & Branch Real Estate. Root & Branch is led by John Carmichael, a former Mayor of Sturgis and the President of GT Independent, a nonprofit that works around the nation to help individuals with disabilities live independently.

The Watershed project was designed to provide affordable housing options and job opportunities for community members with disabilities. The project consists of replacing three single-story blighted buildings and construction a 5-story building. The first and second floors are zero-lot and blend with the existing historic downtown street frontage. Floors three through five are set-back and feature more modern façade. A total of 23 residential units have been added to the downtown, with a mix of studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments. Six apartments will be income-restricted to renters earning up to 8 percent of the area median income while 13 units are expected to lease at rents that would cause them to be “naturally occurring affordable” at these same income levels.

The new first-floor steakhouse-style restaurant creates 30 full-time jobs paying a living wage in a severely distressed, rural community with a 25 percent poverty rate and a median family income of 59 percent of the area median income. Twenty-nine of the new 30 positions are accessible to applicants with less than a college degree. In partnership with GT Independence, the restaurant created a disability employment program. This program will focus on helping local people with physical or intellectual disabilities obtain paid internships with the steakhouse, receive support designed to help the employee identify and achieve career goals, develop job-related skills, and plan for advancement within or outside of the restaurant.

Michigan Community Capital provided $10 million in NMTC financing to the $11 million development. ONB Community Equity, LLC (Subsidiary of Old National Bank) served as the tax credit investor. The City of Sturgis also supported The Watershed project, as did the Sturgis Area Community Foundation and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Even with support from the state and local community, the NMTC was necessary to fill the financing gap created by the high cost of construction and meet the affordable commercial and residential rental rates.

MAP

Address: 108 Chicago Road, Sturgis, MI 49091

PDF Profile

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