(WXMI) — A 115-year-old building in downtown Lowell is being transformed to add housing in downtown Lowell.
Amanda Rogers is the owner of Rogers Neighborhood Realty. She opened her business on Main Street in 2020 before moving to the current location in 2022.
"I'm really fortunate for the opportunity to own a piece of historic downtown Lowell," Rogers said.
The building, constructed in 1910 as a horse veterinarian office, later served as an auto repair shop and furniture store before finding a new purpose under Rogers' ownership.
"All of the floors were uneven. It took 300 bags of concrete to fully level the floors in here," Rogers said. "It's just been kind of a labor of love."
The previously unused upstairs space is being converted into one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartment, adding residential options to the downtown area.
"This is really exciting for me to be able to bring more housing to downtown since that's my job, helping people get into housing, and to be able to have housing where you can walk to everything that Lowell has to offer," Rogers said.
Rogers applied for and received over $200,000 in grant funding through a Michigan Economic Development Corporation program designed to help reutilize unused spaces. The grant will help complete the over $600,000 project.
"Very grateful for the state grant that we're getting. Without that, I don't know if I'd push forward completing this," Rogers said.
This development is one of several housing projects currently underway in downtown Lowell aimed at increasing residential living and strengthening the downtown area.
Mike Burns, City Manager for the City of Lowell, emphasized the importance of such investments: "People want to live in communities with strong downtowns. You see the trends nationwide that communities that invest in their downtown have more people moving into the community. The investment in downtown is probably one of the most important investments you can make."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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