94-unit apartment project under way on Tennessee St.
Taking advantage of decent December weather, construction on Zinc Mill Terrace, a 94-unit apartment complex along Tennessee Street in Greencastle, continues on schedule, the developer said Friday.
The ambitious project, approved last February by the City Plan Commission, includes seven buildings along the south side of Veterans Memorial Highway/State Road 240, just west of the four-way stopsign by Greencastle Middle School.
Brazil developer Brad Emmert said Friday that the first units at Zinc Mill Terrace are expected to be ready for occupancy in April or May.
"As long as the weather holds," he smiled under sunny skies Friday morning on Greencastle's South Side.
Emmert expects the entire $5 million project to be completed by August or September.
The first buildings are taking shape along Tennessee Street after site preparation early this fall resulted in major mounds of dirt being moved around on the triangle-shaped 7.66-acre site.
Emmert said one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment units will be available, including some that will have a garage.
"We build them. We own them. We rent them," he told the Plan Commission earlier this year, characterizing the apartments as designed for young professionals, teachers, professors and even students.
Units typically carry a rental figure of $750-$800 a month, he said.
Confident in Greencastle, a rebounding economy and his own business savvy, Emmert and his Brazil-based Emmert Group LLC have been active in Greencastle projects since 2007. He also owns the USDA building and the office housing the Department of Children Services on Ridgeland Road.
Emmert has developed several apartment units in Brazil with more under construction in Clay County.
Occupancy there is 100 percent, he said, and "people are begging to get in" to the new units, he told the Plan Commission at its February meeting.
"I really believe the Greencastle market will be better than our Brazil market," he said, indicating the Zinc Mill Terrace apartments will all be "market rate units." In other words, he is not a low-income housing provider and accepts no federal subsidies for the units.
Emmert expects to complete the project in a single phase with it all being finished by late August or early September.