GREENFIELD — A development offering apartments and fully furnished extended-stay residences is planned for the city’s north side.
Along with providing housing, the businessman behind the endeavor aims to fill a need he’s noticed for those staying in the community who require something more than a hotel room, but not quite a permanent home.
The four-story building, called The Nest, is planned for the north side of Barrett Drive in the southeast quadrant of State Street and Interstate 70. The site is just north of the Holiday Inn Express and Suites.
Each floor will be about 11,700 square feet. The top floor will feature 24 fully furnished studios for monthly or weekly short-term stays for people in the area on extended business. The rest of the building will be made up of 35 one-bedroom and two two-bedroom apartments. Some of the one-bedroom units may be furnished as well, for those in need of short-term stays while looking for permanent housing.
A subsidiary of Greenfield-based Star Group, Inc. is behind the development. Star Group operates multiple businesses in Indiana, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, including the Holiday Inn Express and Suites and nearby Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Greenfield.
Mohan Reddyreddy, president of Star Group, said The Nest will be ideal for those who would benefit from quick access to I-70, like those who work in Indianapolis and the quickly growing Mt. Comfort area.
“They’re going to be nice,” Reddyreddy said. “Not a run-of-the-mill apartment. They’re small, but we call them smart homes because they will have all kinds of amenities more geared toward the younger generation. Just technology-wise, they’ll really be better appointed and better looking.”
At a Greenfield Plan Commission meeting earlier this week, he acknowledged the units won’t be much of a draw for families with children.
“These are catering to the needs of people who are coming in … for a short period of time, maybe a year, or six months, two years, before they buy a home and go out,” he said. “These are not for larger families.”
Reddyreddy said monthly rents will be in the $1,000 range for one-bedroom units and around $1,275 for the two-bedroom units.
“It’s a moving goalpost at this point in time, but definitely upscale,” he told the Daily Reporter. “It will be close to the market; not exorbitantly high, but not low.”
The weekly or monthly fully furnished extended-stay studios will run a little higher, he added.
“We always wanted to do something on the extended-stay kind of market,” Reddyreddy said. “As a hotelier, we know we get a lot of extended-stay people staying at our hotels. We hear it every day that they don’t have a full kitchen and they can’t cook; it’s such a hassle for them to stay here and eat out on a daily basis.”
The site will have 60 parking spaces. Also part of the development is a half-acre to the southwest across Barrett Drive, which will have 40 parking spaces. A crosswalk will be put in across the road.
Plan commission members voted 6-0 on a development plan for the project, which city planning officials also support.
“We do feel that it is compatible with the surrounding land uses in that area,” said Elizabeth Bentz Williams, Greenfield senior planner. “There are several hotels and commercial uses, and having a multifamily use here is appropriate at the proximity to the interchange.”
Reddyreddy hopes to break ground in October and open in late summer or early fall 2022.
His firm acquired the land for the development after the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority denied Indianapolis-based RealAmerica’s application for tax credits to help fund a different apartment proposal on the property earlier this year.
A Star Group subsidiary also has the approximately 3.5 acres to the east of the land slated for The Nest. Reddyreddy said if the development works out well, a mixed-use project may follow on the neighboring ground.
“It all depends on what the city allows us to do, depending on how this shapes up,” he said.
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The Nest
- Southeast quadrant of State Street, I-70
- Four stories, 11,700 square feet per floor
- One- and two-bedroom apartments
- Extended-stay studios
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