New homes in Ypsilanti Township’s Creekside Subdivision are springing up at a rate quicker than any time during the last five years, according to township officials.
The news comes just several weeks after a developer announced it would resume building new houses in the nearby 400-home Lakewood Farms development.
Township Planning Director Joe Lawson said Lombardo Homes, which owns portions of Creekside, had been pulling between 10 and 20 building permits a year since 2008, but already has pulled 13 in 2012.
He said he expects that rate to continue to increase.
“Things have picked up this year. They’re going at a better clip now,” Lawson said.
Lombardo was founded in 1961 and is based out of Shelby Township and also operates offices in Indianapolis and St. Louis.
Pulte Homes received final site plan approval for the 377-acre Creekside Development in 2006 and began building homes. The development is divided up into four sections — Creekside East, Creekside West, Creekside Farms and Creekside South.
Pulte still owns Creekside Farms, which remains undeveloped land on Merritt Road a quarter-mile west of Tuttle Hill. Pulte also built homes on 209 of the 240 lots of Creekside West, on the northwest corner of Merritt and Tuttle Hill, and maintains ownership of the development. The developer hasn't pulled any permits to start new homes at either site.
Pulte sold a portion of Creekside East and Creekside South to Lombardo in 2008. The company did so even after building out the infrastructure to Creekside East, which is a 250-unit, 93-acre development at the northeast and southeast corners of Tuttle Hill and Merritt.
Pulte sold Creekside South, at the southwest corner of Tuttle Hill and Merritt, to Lombardo after building out 70 of 187 lots.
Greg Windingland, vice president of land development with Lombardo, said the deal for the Creekside properties was part of a larger deal between the two companies and declined to provide a sale price.
"It was an established community with infrastructure improvements already completed," Windingland said. "We were able to get it at the right price at the right time."
He said the company is seeing an increase in sales in all 28 communities it operates in in southeast Michigan.
"In all of them we’re seeing a nice increase in sales," Wingdingland said. "Creekside East is one of the developments experiencing that. They tend to ebb and flow, but overall we're seeing an increase and 2013 has started out as a good year for sales."
Lombardo has combined some of the lots, which are 90-by-140 feet and 60-by-140 feet, it now owns in Creekside East and Creekside South.
The homes range from 2,200 to 2,700 square feet, and prices begin near $200,000 and go up to $250,000.