New homes to further restoration of Maple High Six Corners
Date: 10/31/2013
By G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.comSPRINGFIELD – Four new homes that should be completed by next spring will “further contribute to the restoration” of the Maple High Six Corners neighborhood, according to Ward 3 City Councilor Melvin Edwards.
Edwards and other city officials gathered on Oct. 25 for the announcement that work will begin on the four single-family homes.
Viva Development, a company operated by Springfield Police Lt. Alberto Ayala, is building the homes. Ayala said that he has been building homes for the past 20 years. The four houses will have different designs, and some will be three bedroom units, while others will have four bedrooms. All will have two-car garages.
Pointing across the streets at a series of recent homes that were constructed prior to the tornado that swept through the neighborhood on June 1, 2011, Ayala said that his company helped repair a number of the homes.
He added that he was raised around the corner from the new construction on Beech Street.
Ayala said, “I had a vision and they [city department heads] put it all together … it’s going to be a great project.”
Kathleen Lingenberg, the housing consultant assisting Ayala on the project, said the foundations would be dug and concrete poured immediately so the homes can be framed and weather-tight before the first snow.
Once built, the homes will retail from $135,000 to $145,000, she added.
Ayala will be able to access up to $800,000 in Neighborhood Stabilization funds to complete this project.
About one block away, on another piece of city-owned land that once was the location of the Spruce Manor Nursing Home, the city plans to work with another development by building three single-family homes, Mayor Domenic Sarno said.
Sarno called Central Street “the gateway to downtown and East Forest Park.”
