Cadillac – building boom!

I recently read the article below about four housing projects fueling what is being described as a building boom in one Up North town, Cadillac.

4 Housing Projects fueling the Building Boom in one Up North Town

As someone who spends a fair amount of time thinking, talking, worrying, and occasionally obsessing over housing in our community, I have to say: this article is worth celebrating.

I remember my first month as the Executive Director of the Alliance for Economic Success. I was asked to facilitate a community conversation about housing. The Housing TIF had just been announced, and experts in the room talked about financing, development, incentives, housing needs, and all sorts of things that, at the time, sounded like a completely different language.

I was brand new to economic development.

I remember sitting there thinking, How hard can building housing really be?

Y’all- Building housing is hard.

Really hard.

There is land. There is infrastructure. There are zoning requirements. There are financing challenges. There are construction costs. There are interest rates. There are market studies. There are incentives. There are timelines. There are environmental considerations. Developers, lenders, municipalities, state agencies, neighbors, and future residents all have a stake in the outcome.

And then, once you get through all of that, you actually have to build the thing.

So when I look at what is happening in Cadillac right now, I don’t just see buildings going up. I see people willing to take a risk on Cadillac. I see developers looking at our community and believing there is a market here. I see the City of Cadillac working to create opportunities for housing development.

I see partnerships. I see relationships being built between developers, housing organizations, financial partners, local government, and community leaders.

This is where the conversation gets more complicated and rightly so. Are these projects affordable? Are they workforce housing? Are they attainable housing?

The honest answer is: it depends on who you ask.

“Affordable” means different things to different households. What is attainable for one family may be completely out of reach for another. And we absolutely should continue asking these questions.

But we also need to recognize that many of these projects have specific affordability requirements attached to their financing or incentives. Those requirements matter. They are part of the deal.

And there is another question I think is worth asking:

Why would a developer invest millions of dollars to build housing in Cadillac if they didn’t believe people would live there?

Developers don’t build apartment buildings because they enjoy looking at empty buildings. They build because they see demand. That doesn’t mean we have solved our housing problem. We haven’t.

In fact, we still have a tremendous need for additional housing across our region, at a variety of price points and in a variety of forms.

We need apartments. We need starter homes.

We need attainable ownership opportunities. We need housing for workers.

We need housing for young professionals. We need housing for families.

We need housing for people who want to downsize but aren’t ready to leave the community they love.

We need more choices.

That’s why seeing multiple housing projects move forward in Cadillac matters.

I think this is worth saying- developers are sometimes portrayed as people who swoop into a community, build something, make a bunch of money, and disappear.

That’s not the developers I have come to know. They are real people investing real money.

They have families. Employees. Payrolls. Mortgages. Investors. Bills. Risks.

And yes, they need to make a profit. That’s not a bad word.

It’s how a business stays in business. It’s how someone can take on the next project, hire the next employee, and make the next investment.

Does that mean we shouldn’t ask questions? Absolutely not.

We should have conversations about affordability, design, infrastructure, density, community impact, and whether projects are meeting the commitments they’ve made.

But we can do that without assuming that every developer is trying to take advantage of our community. Sometimes they’re simply people taking a risk because they believe in a place.

And right now, people are willing to take that risk in Cadillac- that’s a pretty big deal.

There is certainly no shortage of headlines or conversations about the things Cadillac could be doing better. And we should have those conversations.

This article isn’t pretending everything is perfect here. It’s simply recognizing where progress is being made. And one area where I think we deserve to give ourselves some credit is this:

Cadillac is attracting investors. We are having conversations with developers. We are building relationships. We are creating partnerships. We are seeing housing projects move from ideas to plans to construction. That hasn’t happened by accident. And it hasn’t happened because one person or one organization has all the answers. It happens because a whole bunch of people keep showing up.

So yes, let’s keep asking the hard questions. Let’s keep talking about affordability. Let’s keep looking for ways to create more attainable housing. Let’s keep working on infrastructure, incentives, regulations, and the many other pieces that make development possible.

But let’s also pause for a minute and recognize what is happening right in front of us.

Cadillac is building. People are investing. Developers are taking chances. Partners are coming to the table. And that’s a pretty good story about our community.

Maybe building housing is hard. (Okay. It’s really hard.) But we’re doing it. And I think that’s worth talking about, too.

-Niki Schultz, Executive Director (AES)