The Sterling Group Village at Wayne Trace

This weekend, to my surprise, the Village at Wayne Trace was having an open house. I just happen to stumble upon this event. I was disappointed that the place was not landscaped, but was happened to see so many young African-American females viewing the duplex homes of two, three and four bedrooms.

I spoke to two representatives, or should I say questioned them. The two were not offended and even gave me information and wanted to send me additional information. Sweet!

I found out that there was 50 units that were available and all but three of the units were already taken.. Now they could have been pulling my leg, but I was thrown aback, especially with low amount of coverage by our media.

"Larry Swank and Lance Swank are the sole shareholders of the Sterling Group,
Inc. The Companies under the Sterling Group umbrella include Sterling
Construction Corp of Indiana, Sterling Management Ltd., Inc., Sterling
Development LLC and Sterling Acquisitions LLC.
Sterling Construction Corp of Indiana
Sterling Construction Corp of Indiana currently has 10 projects under construction
consisting of 933 units.
Arbors at Belleville Park III - $2,579,991
Reserve at Lakeview - $5,900,000
Lakeside Towers II - $4,235,555
Village at Wayne Trace - $4,075,687
Homes at Houston Whittier - $5,146,128
Arbors at Eagle Crest II - $3,129,548
Wingate – Wayne Tower - $1,595,380
Wingate – Solberg Tower - $1,652,773
Wingate – Romulus Tower - $1,355,124
Wingate – Madison Tower - $1,622,848
Recently completed projects include:
Woodbridge Estates III
Woodbridge Estates IV
Woodbridge Estates V
Horace Mann and
Partnership Park.
Sterling Management Ltd., Inc.
Sterling Management Ltd., Inc. currently has 5,918 rental units in 50 properties
and 3,212 mini storage warehouse units in 7 properties under management. In
addition, there are 218 units in four properties to begin lease-up in the Fall of
2007.
Sterling Development LLC
Sterling Development LLC is currently seeking market rate opportunities in the
South and Southeastern parts of the United States. Transactions recently closed
include Arbors at Belleville Park III, Village at Wayne Trace, Arbors at Eagle
Crest II and Reserve at Lakeview.
Sterling Acquisitions LLC."

This is truly difference from Renaissance Pointe development. The Village untis are all a part of the Section 42 low income tax credit housing alternatives for lower to medium income households. As I stated so many times, I believe that Renaissance Pointe is a development seeking a new market that has nothing to do with improving the housing condition of the African-American families but to attract a new demographic to displace the current African-American families that current live in the area. I suggested to one of the Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball blogger that an incentive should have been built into reduce the price of Renaissance Pointe for families to remain in the neighborhood after their old housing was purchased. This was an option, but not an option if the goal was to displace these families from the new and more inclusive neighborhoods (wink-wink).

It will be interesting to see the demographic of the new $6 million Village at Wayne Trace.

This is my final thought on the Renaissance Pointe land acquisition project. I believe that the city did not want outside groups such as the Sterling Group to come in and built affordable homes for the local residents. I believe each unit has a cost of over $100,000. The City of Fort Wayne has failed to meet the residents need over the years for so long and wanted and needed to continue to maintain substandard housing as the only choice for African-American families. This will change with these new groups such as the Sterling Group willing to come to the south end of town to build their investment with their money although encouraged with tax incentives for doing so, nothing like Harrison Square.

To starve off other investors, the City is attempting to land lock certain areas from development by these outside developers. It should come as no surprise as to why six model homes are being built. It should not come as a surprise that a YWCA is being proposed to be built on a brownfield area at the same time on the southside. It should not be surprised that land that is owned by an African-American church and pastor looks like an abandoned field without a single home built on it.

Fort Wayne power elites are no longer running things and no longer can contain its diverse and growing population. Maybe soon our local newspaper will write about these homes on the southside you think????