Green home sale latest win for Cincinnati Northside CURC

A rehabilitated house at 4154 Mad Anthony Street was opened up for a community celebration last week, the latest win in Cincinnati Northside Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation's (CNCURC) neighborhood redevelopment efforts.
That's because the two-bedroom, two-bathroom neo-Colonial house has already been sold after only six weeks on the market.

The rehabilitation is part of CNCURC's Fergus Street Homeownership Project, an effort to build and renovate single-family housing and demolish blighted structures along Mad Anthony Street and Fergus and Chase avenues.

The house was sold by business partners Libby Hunter and Jami Stutzman of Comey & Shepherd Realtors, the first realtors in southwest Ohio designated GREEN by the National Association of Realtors.

"The biggest 'green' feature of 4154 Mad Anthony is the fact that it is a redeveloped home and did not end up in the landfill," Hunter says.

Additional sustainable features include icynene insulation, low-e windows, new high-efficiency mechanicals, low-flow water fixtures, and low-VOC paints, finishes, and carpeting.

Having a small, grassroots non-profit like CNCURC leading the way in sustainable development is "inspirational", Hunter says.

"Sustainable renovation and new construction is quickly becoming part of our urban dialogue and thoughtful consumers who care about their housing choices and the subsequent impact on the environment are taking notice of how developers are proceeding with new projects," she says.

Having already completed and sold two green HOME project houses, CNCURC has begun the rehabilitation of houses at 1422 and 1425 Chase Avenue, and plans to begin a renovation to create three condominium units at 1433 Chase Avenue later this spring.

As a Northside resident, Hunter has seen first-hand the improvements CNCURC has brought to the neighborhood.

"Homeownership rates are up and property values are on the rise without the risk of gentrification that we've seen in other urban neighborhoods that underwent a rapid transformation," she says.

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Source: Libby Hunter, GREEN realtor, Comey & Shepherd Realtors