Chatham-Kent's largest home building project in the last four decades is now underway.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Wednesday on Park Avenue between Howard Road and Bloomfield Road in Chatham, which is the site where around 380 private homes will be built. The project will feature modern, single-family homes, as well as a park for children and families.
The housing development project is being undertaken by Maple City Homes and will be completed in nine phases. The first phase of the project will see 93 homes built, which is expected to inject an estimated $30 million into the local economy. Further development of the property is expected to take place over the next five years with around 60 to 100 homes being built per year until completion.
The development area is also located very close to Highway 401, allowing the project to be marketed in the surrounding areas of Windsor and London.
"This project enables a lot more people to come here," said Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff. "It's a wonderful location... It's three kilometres from the 401, so anybody that wants to commute from Windsor or London, it opens that causeway."
Maple City Homes President Robb Nelson said Chatham-Kent is the hottest and "most prime" market to build homes. He said it's also important that the project helps those outside the municipality form a positive first impression of CK.
"Their first impression is going to be a brand new subdivision and they're going to see that growth and that excites people," he said. "That puts them in the right frame of mind when they're driving into a new city."
Homes in the new subdivision will be “mid-priced” between $300,000 to just over $400,000 per unit, depending on what buyers are looking for. According to the Chatham-Kent Association of Realtors, the average price of a home sold in Chatham-Kent over the first three months of 2019 is $238,332.
-With files from Michael Hugall