Greatwater Opportunity Capital has become a significant player in Detroit residential development over the last decade, focusing on apartment building constructs and rehabs. In fact, since 2014 the developer has acquired, rehabilitated, and leased over one million square feet of multifamily residential, commercial, and vacant land in Detroit neighborhoods.
With their most current project, they are taking a giant leap of faith. They are undertaking a development approach that has been absent from Detroit for decades: building newly constructed single-family homes. If all goes well this initiative could expand into other areas of the city.
“Detroit has the best old homes,” says Matt Temkin co-founder and partner of Greatwater. “It seems obvious to us that Detroit should have the best new homes too.”
MATT TEMKIN, GREATWATER
Temkin and team hope to build out an initial phase of 23 houses in East Village on Fischer Street over the next 18 months and if the demand is there, they could ultimately build up to 200 homes in the area, and then expand to other neighborhoods.
Temkin explains, “We see people moving from apartments into old homes because they want to own something and put roots down in the city, but old homes require a lot of work and money which is not always the best route to go,” he said. “By giving people this option, I think we’ll open the door to homeownership without all the risks and downsides of buying a decades-old structure.”
Why East Village?
“The Villages are a neat area – I think East Village is the best neighborhood in the state,” says Temkin.
You have proximity to downtown and to the water and a there’s good mix of residential and commercial. This is where we started ten years ago and we’ve developed a lot of apartments in the area and started thinking, what if we were to create a really high-quality product with nice materials and great layouts and give people the option to own something new.
East Village also offers a lot of opportunities in the way of space and land.
“The area used to be full of beautiful homes and so many were demolished,” he said. “We want to fill it up again.”
Often with new development comes a new look and feel, but Greatwater is working to not stray too far from the neighborhood’s original bones.
“Our goal is to make the new houses fit in contextually, so we are taking cues from the existing built environment,” he explains. “We are looking at the older homes that are still in the neighborhood and building toward that, but on the inside, they are decidedly new.”
He says that the roughly 1,500 square-foot homes have modern open floor plans, unlike more traditional homes.
When asked about the challenges they’ve faced with this development, Temkin points to the unknowns.
There is no established model for new single-family home construction in Detroit, so we are essentially writing the playbook as we go, he said.
“We are learning what a good product range is for the area and there is still a lot to figure out. It has not been proven out yet, so we are proving it out.”
As they do so, they do it with an eye on future development in other areas.
“We have plenty of work right now in East Village,” said Temkin. “But if the response is positive, we will likely expand to other neighborhoods where we’ve already developed multi-family housing, such as Midtown, Southwest Detroit, and the North End.
To date, the reactions have been encouraging.
“People are interested,” he said. “We have buyers approaching us who have chosen to live in Detroit and are excited about the option to buy a new home here.”
What do existing residents think?
“The community has encouraged us to do this,” he explains. “We are responding to a need and a desire in that neighborhood and trying to give the area what it used to have – a lively community with a great mix of residential and commercial properties. And what Anthony Curis is doing in the way of commercial and community development is adding tremendously.”
When asked what Temkin thinks the future holds for Detroit’s real estate market, and where the opportunities for growth are, Temkin says,
Part of the promise of Detroit is that it can be an ownership city. In so many other big cities it’s impossible to own unless you are very wealthy. Having home ownership is a healthy contributor to the growth and revitalization of Detroit.
In the end, Temkin says he’s very optimistic about the success of new home development in the city. “It’s a long-term play,” he said. “But slow and steady growth is good for everyone.”
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