Detroit Evening Report: Detroit developer constructing single-family homes in East Village

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is praising a new development of single-family homes in the city’s East Village neighborhood.

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Detroit-based real estate developer Greatwater Homes — an affiliate of Greatwater Opportunity Capital — is building the detached houses along Fischer Street near Kercheval, with three homes already constructed. 

At a press conference held Thursday with representatives from the developer and the East Village Association, Duggan said the new builds are providing Detroiters with options they previously could only find in the suburbs.  

“You can go to a developer who’s building you new houses. Those options are there. Detroiters when they reach that point had to move out of the city. And I always felt like the day would come we’d see new single-family homes built here,” Duggan said.

Greatwater Homes has 18 lots available for new construction, with homes ranging in size from 900 to 1,800 square feet. Two of the homes already built went under contract in less than a week, according to the developer.

“East Village used to be full of families and businesses, with people on every block,” Delores Orr, a leader of the East Village Association, said in a news release. “It is so wonderful to see new construction and excited homeowners once again.” 

Home prices will range from the high $200,000s to the high $300,000s, and the houses are built with garages, air conditioning and “premium fixtures,” the developer said.

The houses will also qualify for Neighborhood Enterprise Zone tax abatements. 

Other headlines for Thursday, May 9, 2024: 

• The documentary film, “In Search of Bengali Harlem,” shines a light on the untold stories of Muslim Bengali men who worked for British steamships in the early 1900s through co-director Alaudin Ullah’s journey to learn more about his father. The film will broadcast at 8 p.m. tonight on PBS’s documentary series “America ReFramed.”
• Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit is premiering its original production “Yellow Brick Ballads” this weekend at the Detroit Film Theatre inside the Detroit Institute of Arts.
• The City of Detroit is considering canceling fines for overgrown lots participating in what’s called “No Mow May.”
• Community organizations Building Bridges and Global Detroit are hosting a free community cooking class for the Hamtramck, Banglatown, and East Davison Village communities from 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 18 at the Lasky Recreation Center, 13200 Fenelon St., Detroit.
• The City of Detroit’s Planning and Development Department is asking for resident input on its “master plan” by the end of the month. It’s called “Plan Detroit” and will be a 20-month-long process to outline the future of the city.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.