A developer is set to begin work on a $14.7 million apartment building in the region.

Portage-based Hollander Development will build the three-story, 59,420-square-foot building, The Creamery, on a vacant brownfield site near downtown Kalamazoo, at 1101 Portage St.

The property is the former home of Klovergold Creamery, which delivered dairy products to the Kalamazoo community from the 1950s through the 1980s. 

It is anticipated the finished project will be LEED certified and include 10,500 square feet of commercial space, including a YWCA children’s center, with the remaining 48,920 square feet dedicated to the creation of 48 mixed-income apartments, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, or MEDC.

Construction is expected to begin by July and last 16 months, the developer said.

The project’s architect and designer is Kalamazoo-based Byce & Associates. The contractor on the project is Vicksburg-based Frederick Construction.

It is expected to create 23 jobs at $15 per hour, according to MEDC.

The MEDC approved $2.6 million from the Michigan Strategic Fund in tax-exempt bonds and a performance-based loan for the project. 

The city of Kalamazoo brownfield redevelopment authority also received MSF approval for local and school tax capture of $280,018 for the remediation of brownfield conditions at the site.

Other financing for the project includes MSHDA tax-exempt bond financing and cash flow-based loan, a HOME loan from the city of Kalamazoo, a YWCA lease buy-down payment, deferred developer fees, income from operations under the commercial master lease and low-income housing tax credit and solar tax credit equity from Insite Capital, according to MEDC.

A pre-development loan came from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the developer said.

Hollander Development has developed more than 4,000 units of affordable and senior housing since the firm was founded in 1979.