Like many Michigan communities, Portage faces a housing shortage.

The home of Pfizer, Stryker, and other biomedical and pharmaceutical firms, Portage boasts a highly educated population. “If you look at, per-capita, scientists in Michigan, you’re going to be surprised to find Portage is loaded with them,” says City Manager Pat McGinnis. “Some of the neighborhoods that are coming online are very high-end.”

“But I think we’ve got a bit of a shortage in that middle area.”

For educators, healthcare workers, and the factory floor employees who make those pharmaceutical firms productive, things aren’t quite so rosy. “Those people earning middle-, upper-middle-class wages—being paid 80 to 120 percent [area median income]—are hugely underserved,” says McGinnis. “There’s just not a lot of new available housing.”

“We looked at it in Portage [and] we thought, ‘Well, we’re probably going to make a bigger difference if we try to focus on that middle band, at 80 to 120 [AMI].”

The City started looking at a wooded site between Stanley and Woodbine Avenues. The local housing director and the mayor spoke to the owner and asked if they would be willing to sell, which they were, for $360,000 in 2021. “I came onboard in 2022, and it was just a big woods,” says McGinnis. “The direction was to find a way and make it happen, create some workforce housing on that property.”

“And so, we got going.”

The result, four years later, was Stanwood Crossings (named with a portmanteau of the two nearby avenues), a 42-unit subdivision featuring two- and three- bedroom single-family homes—the first project in Portage to be entirely workforce housing and entirely owner-occupied. It is the City of Portage’s entry for the 2026 Community Excellence Award.

The problem, McGinnis acknowledges, is that “new housing is unaffordable by definition.” And so, rather than just building new homes at market rates, the City looked for ways to lower costs for Stanwood’s future homeowners. Changes made by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) in 2023 expanded the use of Brownfield Tax Increment Financing for workforce and attainable housing projects. “We were able to capture those future property taxes to help with the upfront development costs,” says McGinnis.

At the same time, the City assembled a complex package of funding sources. ARPA funds, Kalamazoo County housing millage dollars, down payment assistance programs. “I think we’ve got five different grants at work,” says McGinnis. Private partners also contributed. Abonmarche discounted portions of their upfront drawings. “[Everyone understood] we have to do this because it needs to be done, because it’s a crisis.”

“So, let’s all get on board and do the right thing.”

Earlier plans envisioned a much denser Stanwood Crossings, with nearly 80 homes proposed for the site. Portage residents had concerns about traffic and neighborhood character. Throughout 2023 and into 2024, the City held meetings and listening sessions to gather feedback, and the plan was adjusted accordingly.

The project went out for bid, and finding a builder was a competitive process. The City ultimately went with AVB, a local builder known for very high-end, high-quality construction. “Their employees are on our school boards, and they’re very involved throughout the whole Kalamazoo region, philanthropically,” says McGinnis. “They’ve been around a long time, a very environmentally conscious company.”

“They sharpened their pencils and said, ‘We need to be a part of this thing.’ They came in where we needed them to. They knew what we were doing—because they’re local, and they’ve been paying attention.”

The end result? “We’re charging 75% of what it costs us to build these houses,” says McGinnis. “On the market, they would sell for more than what it costs to build them: If it costs [$325,000] to build it, that home is going to sell for $400,000. And here we are offering it for $275,000.”

Stanwood’s location is ideal for non-motorized travel. “Lakeview Park is right next door. It’s a huge park with all the amenities, tennis, pickleball, a nice walking path, a boardwalk along a creek, a lake, great fishing in there,” says McGinnis. “Then there’s access to coffee shops, restaurants, a little grocery store—things you could actually walk to. And then the other way, not even a quarter mile, is Lake Center Elementary.”

A knock-on effect of the Stanwood Crossings development was the creation of the Portage Community Land Trust. It has become an important factor in the project’s affordability strategy. Under the land trust model, homeowners purchase the house itself while the trust retains ownership of the land beneath it. “When you sell, you’re not selling the land; you’re just selling the improvement,” says McGinnis. “You still get to appreciate your investment, like the American Dream thing. You’re just doing it at about 75 percent …. The beauty of it is that affordability is baked into it, forever.”

“So, it’s really a unique dynamic that we were able to pull together to make these 42 homes available to people in that 80-to-120 band.”

Groundbreaking took place in 2025. Four homes have been sold and are occupied, with two more on the market, though there is a purchase agreement in place for one. Infrastructure work is complete, with homes currently under construction.

In early April, the City of Portage held a ribbon cutting for Stanwood Crossings. At the event, McGinnis noticed that a few kids from a nearby neighborhood had ridden over on their bikes. “I said to my wife, ‘I bet you they’re really [upset] that they lost their woods,’” says McGinnis. “We walked over to the kids and we said, ‘Are you guys mad that your woods went away? Did you have tree forts there?’”

And they said, “’No, these are all going to be new friends here. We can’t wait till the kids start moving in.’”

Author

Emily Pinsuwan

Emily is the League’s full-time Content Writer, composing emails, articles, blog posts, and press releases. If you need words, she has many. Prior to becoming a word person, she was a restaurant person, handling catering, event management, and marketing; prior still, she was a teaching person, at a private boarding school in Massachusetts. Having earned a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Georgia, Emily is confident that she is the only League employee fluent in Latin. She also enjoys cooking, stand-up comedy, and is an avid gamer, having achieved level 40 on her Steam profile.