Recent studies on manufactured housing show basic homes can be built and delivered for as low $150 per square foot, but those prices can increase with more options added. Modular housing built to international codes can generally be built at costs of 10%-15% less than traditional housing, while manufactured housing built to federal HUD standards can be as much as 30% less, according to reports from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. 

But some nearby residents have varying degrees of concern about the project as planned, particularly around the build quality and cost of construction, and how that may impact sales prices. 

“I think we’re trying to work very closely with the foundation to ensure that what comes out of this project is actually beneficial for the neighborhood and for the intended homebuyers,” said Bre Williamson, a North Corktown resident and president of the neighborhood association board. “And that’s always going to be a struggle … because you have multiple stakeholders and multiple interested parties.”

Williamson and others with whom Crain’s spoke said their concerns are rooted in the price and quality of the homes being built, as well as that the project is being rushed, particularly due to a Community Land Trust model being implemented that some residents say could be beneficial but remains unproven in the city of Detroit. 

The CLT would be established by the North Corktown Neighborhood Association. The mechanism allows for community-focused organizations to set up a trust to ensure housing affordability in perpetuity, according to the Traverse City-based Northwest Michigan Rural Housing Partnership.

Alex Lauer, a North Corktown resident who lives adjacent to the parcels where the housing showcase is planned, is strongly opposed to the development as proposed. 

“I’m all about affordable housing and attainable housing,” said Lauer, a local real estate broker with Clyde Realty LLC. “But the way that they’re doing this, it’s not going to be affordable or attainable and the product is trash.” 

Sheryl Guerro, a nearby property owner and Detroit native who lives out-of-state, offered a similar assessment, saying she fears the proposal may amount to a “squandered opportunity” with low-quality products built on them. 

Guerro said she’s working through a proposal to build a two-story, fully modular housing development on property she owns in the neighborhood. That project, she said, would be built to international quality standards for modular housing. 

Gilbert Family Foundation officials, however, dismiss concerns that the final products will be low quality. Part of the initiative’s goal is to showcase that manufactured and modular housing can offer opportunity for meeting Detroit’s affordable housing goals. 

“Our hope is that by showing the variety and quality and accessibility of these homes, that it will really start to change the way that people think about housing options in the future,” Laura Grannemann, executive director of the Gilbert Family Foundation, told Crain’s in February when the initiative was announced.