TRAVERSE CITY — Ridge45, one of Garfield Township’s landmark residential complexes, will be repurposed into workforce housing under a 15-year PILOT agreement between the township and New Ridge 45 LLC, which is purchasing the property.
The agreement identifies a 6-percent service charge rate for New Ridge 45, a partnership between River Caddis Communities and RMP Investments, “along with a Municipal Services Assessment (MSA), of 5 mills,” according to Tuesday’s resolution.
In approving the PILOT, Garfield Township trustees on Tuesday voted unanimously to repurpose the 484-unit development into housing for workers earning 80-100 percent of the area median income.
New Ridge 45 plans to invest approximately $2.06 million in immediate capital improvements to the property, with $746,000 going to sustainability and technology; $419,000 to community spaces; and $892,000 to buildings and life safety.
The Ridge45 application also said no current residents, even those earning more than 120% AMI, will be displaced as a result of the acquisition.
According to Township Manager Chris Barsheff, current residents will be offered a lease renewal regardless of income, with the property naturally converting to workforce housing through resident turnover.
For those households earning more than 120% of AMI, “the portion of the service charge attributable to that unit will equal the full amount of property tax that would otherwise be due on that portion of the housing project if it were not tax-exempt,” Tuesday’s resolution stated.
According to a 2023 independent market analysis, Grand Traverse County is short about “288 attainable rental units for middle-income workers,” Barsheff cited in a letter to the Garfield Township Board.
“19,329 people commute into the county for work — a substantial base of demand for workforce housing,” Barsheff said. “Preservation of Ridge 45 as workforce housing addresses a documented and growing gap in the county’s rental market.”
Traverse Connect President/CEO Warren Call wrote of his support for the workforce housing PILOT, calling housing “a crucial economic development issue for employers throughout the Grand Traverse region.”
Call said preserving Ridge 45 “as restricted workforce housing at 80 and 120 AMI produces an immediate benefit that would be difficult to replicate through new construction alone.”
That income band, according to Call, represents technicians, hospitality managers, entry-level professionals, health care employees, and skilled trades workers — “essential to the region’s continued growth.”
Call said many of those workers may not qualify for conventional subsidized housing programs, but struggle to afford available market rate housing.
“Businesses are competing, not only to recruit qualified employees, but all to retain them after they arrive,” Call said. “When employees cannot find housing near their workplace, businesses experience smaller applicant pools, increased turnover, longer vacancies, and greater pressure on wages and operating costs.”
Traverse City’s household AMI is $71,731 per year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2019-2023.
“Housing experts generally consider a household ‘cost-burdened’ when it spends more than 30% of its income on rent,” according to New Ridge 45’s PILOT application. “For the typical local household, that’s about $1,793 per month today compared to an average of $1,908 in the Traverse City region market.”
Rents in the broader market could climb to roughly $2,435 per month by 2031, the application cites CoStar and Hello Data Rent Trajectory Estimates from earlier this year.
Rent limits tied to the PILOT would be capped at approximately $2,076 per month by 2031, which keeps it “in reach for the people Ridge 45 is meant to serve.”
The company’s application said its long-term plan is to conserve water, gas, and electricity across the property.
“This will help reduce our impact on the environment and lower utility bills for residents,” the application states, listing high-efficiency water fixtures and tracking, smart irrigation controllers, and common-area HVAC optimization that would conserve more than 2.6 million gallons of water in the first year — “equivalent to four Olympic swimming pools, and over 13 million gallons over five years.”
This would improve the property’s EPA Water Score to “above average” nationally among comparable multi-family properties.
Company plans also include community and common area improvements, like multi-use sport courts, raised garden beds, a gazebo with BBQ stations, and a pet washing station.
“Updated and expanded security camera systems will improve safety throughout the property,” the application states. “Investments in building technology and infrastructure, including drone-based thermal imaging for building inspections and updated office systems, will support proactive and responsible property management for years to come.”
The application called the project “a unique opportunity to protect an existing community asset and advance the Township’s workforce housing goals without the time, cost or disruption of ground-up development.”