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A multi-million dollar apartment complex in the city of Fairborn that is designed to attract seniors and empty-nesters continues to move forward.
City Council recently approved the rezoning and preliminary development plan for the Redwood Living development — a single-story apartment complex that will feature 17 buildings and 103 units on the southwest corner of Commerce Center Boulevard and Trebein Road.
Construction on the $8 million to $9 million project is expected to begin the first quarter of 2015, according to Mike Gebhart, Fairborn's community development director.
Redwood’s final development plan for Fairfield Oaks is expected to go before Fairborn’s planning board Nov. 11. If the planning board approves, it will be presented to council Nov. 17, Gebhart said.
The final development plan will include details such as building materials, street names, landscaping and lighting, Gebhart said.
“I like the idea of this,” Mayor Dan Kirkpatrick said. “It fills a niche that we don’t have. I think it has potential.”
The project will take one-to-two years to complete, according to John Lateulere, Redwood’s senior vice president of development. The apartment complex will be built on a vacant 16.4-acre piece of property.
Each of the 17 buildings will have four-to-eight units, with each unit featuring two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Each unit will be 1,100 to 1,400 square feet and featured an attached two-car garage.
Rent will be between $1,200 and $1,300 a month, and the first year is a one-year lease.
“We know that when people move in here, it’s going to be a peaceful, quiet, very safe community,” said Greg Thurman, a representative of Redwood. “We’re successful with that formula.”
That formula includes no clubhouse and no parking on streets or sidewalks within the development. There will be 32 guest parking spaces on site.
Deputy Mayor Marilyn McCauley said she’s concerned that not having any of those components could be a detriment.
“I don’t see how it helps build a community,” she said. “Having a clubhouse adds to the betterment of the community. I’m not quite following through with the thought process.”
Thurman said the streets are 24 feet wide, there is a driveway every 25 feet, and Redwood has been successful since 1995, even though there are no tennis courts, a clubhouse, a homeowners association or other amenities.
“We have a really good track record with keeping our properties occupied, and have a waiting list,” Thurman said.
Redwood will have a property manager and maintenance employee on site. It will outsource lawn care and snow-plowing to a local company.
Redwood — based in Beachwood, Ohio — has 4,500 units in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, and the company hopes to own 10,000 by 2020, Thurman said.
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