GREENFIELD — With plans to develop 34 lots for new homes in the Keystone subdivision, Arbor Homes is one of only a few production developers currently building in Greenfield.
The subdivision, southwest of county roads 100N and 400E, is being developed exclusively by Arbor Homes and has space for more than 500 homes.
The Indianapolis-based developer has been building new homes in the region since the 1990s and in Greenfield for nearly 10 years. It has built homes as far north as Lafayette and Marion and built homes in the Wyndstone subdivision in Fortville.
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Recently, the Greenfield Board of Works and Public Safety approved agreements with Arbor Homes for infrastructure work in the fourth section of Keystone.
The subdivision is zoned for two types of single-family residential development: 8,400-square-foot lots and 7,200-square-foot lots.
Arbor Homes is building mostly customizable homes, meaning homebuyers pick the lots and style and layout of the homes, said Steve Hatchel, Arbor Homes vice president of sales and marketing.
Ranch styles start at 1,017 square feet, and two-story homes start at 1,677 square feet.
Joanie Fitzwater, city planner, said seeing the progress in Keystone is refreshing. Arbor Homes and Westport Homes, which is building in the Sawmill subdivision west of downtown, are the only production developers — meaning they simultaneously erect multiple homes in the same area — building in Greenfield.
Arbor Homes has 519 lots zoned for residential development in Keystone. So far, it has developed 227 lots and built 161 homes, Fitzwater said.
“(Arbor Homes has) been very steady throughout the downturn,” she said. “They’re steady everywhere I see them building. They’ve done a really good job of maintaining a presence here.”
In Greenfield, Arbor Homes builds about 35 to 40 homes a year, Hatchel said. Greenfield is a good location because of its proximity to Indianapolis and major interstates, he said.
“It’s obviously a viable market,” he said. “(Buyers) are pushing farther out east and north into places like Greenfield that are still an easy commute to Indianapolis.”
Fitzwater said it’s a good sign that Arbor Homes continues to build new homes and develop lots, especially since permits for new homes aren’t as high as city officials hoped they’d be.
In addition to building new developments in Greenfield, the developer has been good to the community, Fitzwater added.
It donated a section of floodplain in the subdivision, which couldn’t be developed, to the parks department, which has made space for a neighborhood park. It also donated land it purchased to the city to be used should a new fire station in the area be needed.
“They’ve been willing to be good corporate citizens,” she said. “We’re happy to have Arbor Homes building here.”
With about half of its lots developed, Arbor Homes is expected to be in Greenfield for several more years, Fitzwater said.
“They’ve been very steady over the years,” she said.
