Ten years in the making, The Creamery, a nearly 60,000 square foot community-envisioned, mixed-use development in Edison, promises to help revitalize the neighborhood by providing affordable housing and much-needed 24 hour quality drop-in childcare.
As the Kalamazoo County Land Bank celebrates a decade of reusing, repurposing and reconnecting blighted property with the community, the agency is excited to see one of its formative projects come to fruition. One of the original properties in the Land Bank’s inventory, the agency demolished the former blighted Klover Gold Creamery in 2011. Then with the volunteer services of Byce & Associates, Inc. and Inform Architects and with the support of the Edison Neighborhood Association, held community visioning sessions for the site.
Residents wanted affordable, mixed-income housing, commercial space, community services and an attractive building. Once the building was demolished, the Land Bank awaited the right partners to come along. Meanwhile, the site was turned into a butterfly garden with labyrinth, a vision created by students at Edison Environmental Science Academy.
In 2015, Matt Hollander of Hollander Development Corporation and Dr. Grace Lubwama of the YWCA joined forces to help create the vision. With 48 one and two-bedroom housing units, 7,500 square feet of commercial space, and an indoor/outdoor state-of-the-art two-story childcare area with central kitchen, The Creamery promises to provide much-needed services and housing to the Edison neighborhood.
“I hope that when the doors open that we have replaced what was an eyesore on Portage and Lake streets with something that is attractive that speaks to what residents articulated they would like to see,” said Kelly Clarke, Land Bank Executive Director.