Water Street Townhomes Roofing

The Water Street Townhomes project in Plymouth is moving right along. The exterior framing is complete. Most of the doors and windows have been installed, except the storefront aluminum windows and entrances for the commercial space. The roofing is underway. (You can see the materials placed on the roof in the picture to the right.) Plumbing Rough-in is underway. We’re building the interior stairs.

Mayor Listenberger gave me permission to take pictures from the Council Chambers windows, so I get the aerial photos like this one without purchasing a drone. (Though a drone purchase is on the list. Ha!)

The project has been taking a beating on Facebook! And to think I accused Culver of having the most active CAVE Society in Marshall County! I found some amusement in these comments:

• The project is hurting downtown businesses by closing the parking lot. (We didn’t close it until after Christmas. It will be back open before next Christmas. There’s a MACOG study showing that downtown Plymouth has twice the parking needed. The parking lot will have more spaces when we’re done.)
• The project will not be affordable. Latest, highest rent number I’ve seen in the comments is $5k per month for one of the townhomes, though others are saying it is housing for illegal immigrants and there will be multiple families in each unit. Hmmmm… “Multiple” sounds like more than two, so three families in each unit at $2,500 cash per family tops that $5k per month projection!
• And I particularly liked this exchange between two people in the comments:
  • Person 1 – “Do we really need this!?”
  • Person 2 – “We just went through a housing study that says we need an additional 1,300 dwelling units in Marshall County.”
  • Person 1 – “Then what good will 14 units do!”
  • Person 2 – “It’s a start!”

The City administration and Common Council have been supportive of this project. I attended a Downtown Merchants’ Association meeting last year and they were also supportive. I participated in two housing studies, one by United Way of Marshall County and one by MACOG, both or which came to similar conclusions about the need for additional housing. I’m pretty confident this will be a positive addition to Plymouth.