$14M Campau Commons wraps construction

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Campau Commons, the once dilapidated Grand Rapids public housing facility on the corner of Division and Franklin is now 92 pristine residences surrounding Campau Park Elementary School and its adjoining Campau Park and pool. The $14 million project is ending Phase 2 of the plan to provide decent affordable housing for lower income residents.

All 92 homes—32 one- and two-bedroom townhomes and 60 three- and four-bedroom duplexes—are occupied. Seven of the 90 families that originally lived at Campau Commons, and were relocated during construction of the new residences, chose to return.

“We gave all of the relocated families the first opportunity to move back, but a lot of them had moved closer to their work or had gotten established in their new neighborhoods and didn’t want to move again,” says Carlos Sanchez, executive director of the Grand Rapids Housing Commission, the agency spearheading the development.

All that remains of this phase of construction is the completion of the 5,000-square-foot, two-story administrative building on the property.

“That will be a community center for residents to have activities there, we’ll have a Head Start program and the Campau Commons offices and services for residents will be located there,” Sanchez adds. “We have programs like Family Self Sufficiency to help folks get training and get employed.”

The new building will have universal accessibility and should be complete by year’s end.

“The school, from my understanding, is at capacity,” Sanchez notes. “It was one of the schools the Grand Rapids Public Schools were considering closing, but, now that we’ve moved the residents into the development, enrollment is back up and the pool is now heavily used, too.”

Source: Carlos Sanchez, Grand Rapids Housing Commission

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Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].