Downtrodden City Gets $60M Multifamily Project

PONTIAC, MI-A $60-million housing development here will become one of the largest projects in a city that hasn’t seen many new homes since its decline as the seat of Oakland County. Jay Joliat is the man behind the project called Fieldstone Village.

The chief executive officer of The Joliat Group of Cos. of Birmingham, which also owns many restaurants in the Oakland County area, also teams with other local builders on different projects. He’s proposed building 225 new detached condominiums on vacant property at Walton and Giddings roads, close to I-75.

“There will be seven different models, from 1,500-sf ranches to 2,600-sf colonials,” Joliat tells GlobeSt.com. The homes will range from $189,900 to $250,000 each, he adds.

The 91-acre property is mostly old growth and forest, Joliat notes. He adds his project will leave 24 acres of wetlands as green space.”Nearly every lot will back up to woods,” Joliat says.

There’s not many new homes built in Pontiac, an older, automotive-built city that has suffered a decline in the last 60 years. However, Joliat says this property is one of the last large vacant parcels in the urban area of Oakland County, one of the top five richest counties in the US.

“Most of the developments north of this site are either attached or cluster housing,” Joliat says. “This is the largest piece of developable, available land before you hit farmland in the north end of the county and into Lapeer.”

Joliat had planned on building a retirement community on the site, but after intense interest from all age groups was shown after the property was marketed, he says he changed his mind.

“We quickly decided to open it up to everybody,” Joliat says.

He says he’s had nine sales in the first month of marketing. The development of Fieldstone will take two to four years to complete, Joliat adds.