UPHOLDINGS’ LATEST INDIANA AFFORDABLE APARTMENT BUILDING BREAKS GROUND
- Petra
- May 15, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 16, 2020
EAST CHICAGO, IN – As of May 13th, UPholdings is pleased to announce the commencement of construction on our latest affordable multifamily residential and commercial building, Harbor Square. The project, located in the North Harbor neighborhood at 2301 Broadway Street in East Chicago, Indiana, is an innovative new approach to blending housing with healthcare and community-based guided pathways for tenant empowerment.
A collaboration with the City of East Chicago and the State of Indiana, the project was conceived in response to the Moving Forward 3.0 Initiative, aiming to create housing that is affordable, high-quality, innovative, sustainable, and a catalyst for positive community development in Lake County. Harbor Square will partner with HealthLinc who will operate the ground floor’s Federally Qualified Health Clinic, open to the public. This blended management team will work to provide residents with supportive services as well as implement a Wage and Asset Growth Plan with residents which aims to interrupt the cycle of intergenerational poverty. The project is designed to include a rooftop solar panel array that will offset the building’s energy costs and will be built to National Green Building Standards’ Gold-level certification.
"The Moving Forward program has allowed us to work directly with community leaders on innovative housing that is intentionally designed to improve a family's quality of life, their wages and assets. Housing is fundamental to wellness and should be a springboard for opportunity," commented Jessica H. Berzac, Principal at UPholdings.
The 28-unit apartment building features one- and two-bedroom units with modern, accessible layouts and a variety of resident common spaces, including a community ‘hub’ space which will host activities and workshops that benefit residents and will be open to community members.
UPholdings worked closely with the architects and general contractors of Cordogan Clark & Associates to conceive, design, and now build Harbor Square. The project was made possible through a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit award and funds received from Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority (IHCDA), project-based subsidy vouchers from East Chicago Housing Authority, as well as investments from CREA, LLC, the City of East Chicago, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, Fifth Third Bank, and Peoples Bank.
The part that stands out to me is treating housing as a foundation for wellness, not just a roof — that framing feels overdue. Also, the “tenant empowerment” angle sounds great on paper, but I wonder how it gets personalized for different households; it’s almost like how people want tailored suggestions on https://stylelooklab.com instead of generic advice, otherwise they tune out.
Blending housing + healthcare is such a big deal, especially for families that are already stretched thin on time and transportation. Total tangent, but “community-based pathways” made me think of how people engage more when things feel approachable — kind of like messing around with a Ghibli-style photo transform and suddenly a tool feels less intimidating.
Curious how you’ll measure success here beyond occupancy — like clinic utilization, resident retention, or income gains over a few years. I’ve seen directories like https://hrefgo.com track “what got submitted vs what people actually use,” and it feels like housing programs need that same kind of real-world feedback loop.
Having HealthLinc on the ground floor feels like the kind of practical partnership that actually changes day-to-day life for residents, not just the press release. Also, the “guided pathways” language made me think of how people learn step-by-step systems — I’ve even used a simple vigenere cipher tool to teach the idea of process and repetition, and it’s the follow-through that matters.
The rooftop solar + Green Building Standards target sounds promising, but I’d love to know if residents see any direct savings or if it mostly offsets owner operating costs. Randomly, this reminded me of how small optimizations add up over time — like when I’m procrastinating with https://blockblast.co and realize one bad move early makes everything harder later.